


A Dash Of Forever And Two Cups Of Love

by CaptainLeBubbles



Series: The Hallmarks of a Family (Hallmarks AU) [21]
Category: RWBY
Genre: -throws hallmarks clover at crwby- i fixed your character for you, Disabled Character, F/M, Family Dynamics, M/M, Questioning Sexuality, Teen Pregnancy (backstory only), also, and cinder's story is gonna get capital duh dark, extremely tasteless running gags, figuring out your sexuality at forty, questioning gender, the culmination of a two year slow burn you didn't even realize was on fire, the kids are growing up and that is Unacceptable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 32,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24949357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: Roman Torchwick is an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in layers upon layers of bullshit. But Tai has had the unique ability to see through his bullshit almost from the day they met, and believes in his heart that Roman is agood man. The sort of man he trusts with the safety of his children and the safety of his brother.And ever since laying down the law about boundaries, Tai and Roman have become much closer. So close that they have a standing movie night at the beginning of the month and regularly go out for coffee in between classes. So close that Roman is almost always Tai’s most recent text chat on his phone.So close that for the first time since high school, Tai is starting to wonder if he might not be… quite as straight as advertised.
Relationships: Clover Ebi/Cinder Fall, James Ironwood & Winter Schnee, Junior & Roman Torchwick, Mercury Black & James Ironwood, Neopolitan & Roman Torchwick, Qrow Branwen & Clover Ebi, Qrow Branwen/James Ironwood, Taiyang Xiaolong/Roman Torchwick, all manifestations of the Xiaolong-Branwen-Ironwood household
Series: The Hallmarks of a Family (Hallmarks AU) [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1200967
Comments: 65
Kudos: 53





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Whoah, several several months ahead of schedule I appear with the third and (maybe) final volume of the Hallmarks trilogy! I know, I'm as confused as you are.
> 
> But! I'm not gonna question it cause I'm super excited about this and READY for y'all to read it. This fic has been in planning since halfway through the first one and the second one was written just to set it up.
> 
> With apologies for how short the prologue is; it's one of those things that was just unavoidable. Anyway get hype!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, you didn't read any of the shorts, you might want to go back and at least skim them, because there's a lot of plot you might be lost on if you don't.

-/-

Before we begin our tale, we must first grant context for a later occurrence: for this reason, bear with us as we back up… somewhat.

The day in question is sometime in January, just after new year, and Junior is coming in to get his bar ready for the evening crowd. The time is early afternoon, but when he goes to open the door, rather than find it chained as usual, he finds his chains and padlock lying in a crumpled heap on the ground.

“Hmm,” he says, because there’s not much else to say. He pushes the door open carefully and steps inside with a silence unexpected in someone his size, and begins creeping through the bar, seeking the breaker-and-enterer, or at least any evidence they may have left behind.

What he finds is a teenage girl.

She’s in the breakroom, curled up asleep on the couch, huddled under a worn jacket that does not cover her completely.

As Junior looks on, the girl shifts in her sleep, and her jacket falls away, and  _ oh, oh no. _

Not just a teenage girl, then. A  _ pregnant _ teenage girl.

Ah, fuck.

-/-


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clover exists for one reason and one reason only, and that reason is to cockblock Qrow and James. Also, Tai is in a pickle, so he does what everyone does in these situations: calls Glynda.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I wasn't expecting such an overwhelmingly kind response to the prologue! I usually only do the Hallmarks thing during RWBY volumes, so I didn't think I'd have that many people enthusiastic enough about RWBY to want to read my fic right now. (On the other hand, this fic is barely RWBY anymore.)

-/-

Some days Qrow got rid of his kids pretty quickly, so by the time James came to pick him up that day, the classroom was completely deserted. Qrow glanced over when he came in, but carried on sweeping while he approached: as soon as James was in reach, he plucked the broom from Qrow’s hand and pulled him into a kiss.

Qrow grinned and slipped his arms around James’ neck, swaying them slightly on the spot. “So is this gonna be a tradition now? You ravishing me in my classroom every time you find me in it alone?”

“Are you complaining?”

Qrow smirked, and plucked the broom back from him, tossing it aside before taking his hand and moving it pointedly to his hip. “Do I  _ sound _ like I’m complaining?”

And, okay, yes, Qrow had an exhibitionist streak: there was a thrill in knowing they were doing something they shouldn’t be doing in a place they shouldn’t be doing it, and that anyone could catch them at it. But he was always extremely careful that they wouldn’t  _ actually _ be caught, so when James’ hands slipped down his hip to cup his ass, pulling Qrow tight against him, Qrow pulled away from the kiss- but not the embrace.

He caught James’ tie in his hand and twirled it with a smirk. “Not that I’m objecting or anything, but what’s the endgame here? Because-”

And then froze, because his door had opened and a young man with neat hair and a sweatervest had strolled in.

“Sorry, Mr. Branwen, I left my bag behind.” He paused on spotting James, and then grinned. “Hi, Dr. Ironwood! It’s really good to see you!”

Qrow, still wrapped in James’ embrace, James’ hand still on his ass, still very clearly attempting to make out with his boyfriend, just glared daggers at the young man in his classroom, but James was already pulling away, reaching up to straighten his ruined tie before folding his hands behind his back. He was smiling pretty warmly, though.

“It’s good to see you again, Clover,” he said. “But what are you doing here?”

Qrow folded his arms with a huff. “He’s my new student teacher,” he said. “How do  _ you _ know him?”

“Clover here was the first student we took on when we established the Polendina Foundation.”

“That’s right!” Clover said, beaming. “Everything I am today, I owe to Dr. Ironwood and Dr. Polendina and their generosity.”

“That’s not true,” James said. “Everything you are you did yourself. We just gave you the tools to meet your potential.”

“Whatever you say, sir.”

“So you’re going into teaching, I take it?”

“Yes sir!” Clover straightened. “Is that… okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I know the Foundation is meant for students who show aptitude in mechanical fields…”

“Which you did,” James assured him. “But if you choose a career path that isn’t one of those fields, that’s up to you. We just provided you with the education opportunities you needed.”

“Jimmy here is actually going into teaching too,” Qrow put in.

“Really? What about the lab?”

“I’m still working part time on an administrative level.” He laughed. “Honestly, those kids coming up these days are thinking circles around me. I think it’s time I let the next generation take the reigns.”

“But there’s still so much you could give the field of robotics-” He broke off, and cleared his throat. “I mean, not that you shouldn’t change careers if you want to. It just came as a surprise, is all. You always seemed so passionate about your work. Especially after-” And here he broke off again. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry.”

“It’s fine,” James assured him. “I love my work at the lab. This just feels like the right next step.”

“Right. Of course.”

“But it’s good to know you’re doing well!” He clapped Clover on the shoulder to punctuate his point, subtly walking him toward the door at that point. “And I’m sure there’s plenty you can learn from Qrow about teaching.”

“That’s what Mr. Ozpin said,” Clover said. “Actually, he said that learning under Mr. Branwen ‘would come with surprises’. I guess he was right, since you turned up on day one. You think this could be what he meant?”

“It’s entirely possible. In fact, I bet if you told one of the kids, they’d tell you Ozpin set it up for some scheme of his. I’m interested in seeing if anything comes of this.”

They were standing in the doorway now. Qrow had ambled along behind them; he leaned on the door now, arms folded while he watched the exchange in amusement. Clover glanced aside, and realized he had been steered out.

“I should get going,” he said. “I have homework.”

“See ya around,” Qrow said, at the same time James said, “Bye. It was good to see you again.”

And then he was gone. Qrow pulled James out of the doorway and pushed it closed, locking it this time before pushing James back against it.

“Now where were we…?”

-/-

Across town on the middle school campus, Tai was on his way to pick up his nieces, but on his way to Robyn’s classroom he stopped and detoured over to Glynda’s instead. She still had a few stragglers, but seventh graders preferred to wait for their rides in the break area out front, so there were rarely more than one or two students in her classroom after the bell.

One of the stragglers was Sun. He high-fived Tai as he came in, and then went back to the book he was reading. Tai paused in his approach to squint at the boy.

“Where’s your tail?”

Sun raised an eyebrow at him. “I got rid of it. Come on, Professor, I’m in seventh grade now. I’m too old to go around pretending I’ve got a tail.”

“You weren’t too old yesterday.”

“That’s yesterday Sun’s problem. Today Sun has much more important things to care about.”

“Like what?”

“Like being in Glynda’s class with Weiss instead of over in Miss Hill’s class with Penny, Nora, and Jaune. I mean, I get why Penny and Nora can’t be in Glynda’s class, but why can’t I be in Miss Hill’s class? And if I have to be over here, why can’t at least Jaune be over here? And poor Ren is on his own, why can’t he be here instead? I can’t have no one but Weiss for company for a whole year, I’m gonna lose my domestication!”

“I thought you and Weiss were getting along better these days?”

“I mean, we  _ were, _ but then she started being snooty with me again. It’s weird. Cause like before it was always like. Oh, me and Weiss, we bicker, but it’s all in good fun, you know? But now it’s like. I think she might actually hate me now? And I dunno what I did wrong or how to fix it or if I’m just being paranoid or what.” He sighed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to spill all this on you.”

Tai rolled his eyes. “Sun, come on. I’ve known you since the day your moms brought you home. If you can’t talk to me, who can you talk to? Even if it’s just to get something off your chest.”

Sun shrugged, looking a little more dejected than he had a moment ago. “Thanks. You know, I asked my mom about Weiss, and she said Weiss is going through a lot right now, and maybe she doesn’t realize how she’s behaving and that she’s hurting me and that I should talk to her and if I did do something to hurt her then she can tell me so we can make it right but I don’t know how to do that. Weiss and I have never been the kind of friends who talk to each other.”

“Well…” Tai gave him a reassuring smile. “Sounds like this might be a good time to learn.”

Sun shrugged, but the conversation was interrupted by Glynda joining them.

“Hello, Tai. Did you forget which classroom your girls are in?”

“No, I came to see you, actually.” He glanced at Sun, but Sun had already returned to his book, so Tai and Glynda moved away, for their sake and Sun’s. “I need to talk to you about something, in private I mean. Are you free this evening?”

“I can be. Release the Grounds at five? I should have everything I need to wrapped up here.”

“Sure, sounds good.”

-/-

James had a five o’clock class on Thursdays, so after dropping Qrow and Ruby off at the house, he had to head back up to Beacon. However, he had a quick detour to make: a personal project he’d been working on for a couple weeks now, during the time he could sneak away without anyone asking questions.

The store was called The Crow’s Nest, and he’d avoided this particular one in his search on the grounds that the name was a little too on-the-nose. But the last five places he’d checked had turned up nothing useful, so Crow’s Nest it was.

When he walked in, a sales girl called a greeting and came over.

“Is there anything I can help you with today, sir?”

“Uh, yes, actually.” He swept his eyes over the little salesroom, where the products seemed a little more niche, a little more personal, than the last five stores. He turned a smile on the sales girl. “I’d like to have a look at your engagement rings, if that would be all right.”

-/-

Glynda was waiting for Tai at Release the Grounds when he got there. He intended to only give her a run down of his situation, but he found that when he started talking, he ended up telling her much more, and told her about the entire past six months, or at least the relevant bit. When he was done, she was quiet for a long time while she considered his story.

“All right,” she finally said. “So you think you might have a crush on Torchwick.”

“Yeah.”

“Right.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I suppose we’ll start with the obvious question. In the nine years I’ve known you, you’ve been pretty consistently straight. What’s changed?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t questioned my sexuality since high school, I thought I had it figured out.”

She raised an eyebrow at him over her cup. “High school? What happened in high school?”

“Nothing, that was the problem. You know how high school is- crushes all the time?”

“I didn’t get crushes. Other people got crushes on me, and I decided if they were worth my time.”

“Yeah, please remember that I live with your brother. I have heard what you were like in high school.”

“I have at all times conducted myself with dignity and grace.”

Tai took a knowing sip of his coffee. “Right. I’m sure Fullyclothed Gentlemen would agree with me.”

Glynda’s eyes widened, and then she sniffed haughtily. “I hope you and Qrow are ready to become full-time parents to Penny because I  _ will _ be murdering her father in his sleep tonight.”

Tai laughed, and said, “Seriously, though. The whole ‘I don’t get crushes’ thing- that was literally me. All my friends were getting crushes and I wasn’t. So I thought, hey, maybe I’m gay?”

“Were you?”

“Obviously not.”

She nodded. “So you never had any crushes at all?”

“Well… there was one, though I was never quite sure about that one…” He frowned, trying to decide how to explain, and after a thoughtful sip of his coffee went on, “I was thinking about crushes, and about  _ wanting _ to date someone instead of just… going out with them because that was what you did. And I got to thinking about my best friend and I thought, well, I wouldn’t mind dating  _ him, _ that wouldn’t be so bad. So I don’t know if I actually had a crush, or if I just talked myself into one.”

“What happened with your friend?”

“Before I could even process either of those things, she informed me she was both a girl and a lesbian. So I both convinced myself I had somehow sensed this,  _ and _ talked myself out of any attraction I might feel.”

“Interesting. Wait, are you talking about Sun’s mother? I knew you two went back pretty far, but I didn’t realize…”

Tai nodded, grinning. “We’ve been friends since we were twelve. She could tell you some pretty embarrassing stories about me when I was a kid.”

“I’ll be sure to ask next date night. But you did eventually land on straight, and you were married twice- what happened there?”

He shrugged. “College, I guess. Somewhere in my third year, when I was finally settling on what I  _ actually _ wanted to do with my life, I realized I’d fallen in love with Summer and Raven and- and it was like anything I’d wondered before didn’t matter anymore. I had found my big love, what did it matter if I didn’t get crushes?”

“Hmm.” Glynda watched him thoughtfully for a few minutes, and then said, “How long did you know them when that happened?”

“Uh, well, I met Summer during freshman year, during the year Qrow disappeared. Then he came back with Raven that summer so…” He shrugged. “But Summer and I were only friendly for that first year, we didn’t really start getting closer until Qrow latched onto her. So about two years, give or take?”

“What about in high school? How long had you known each other then?”

“Uh, at least three or four years by then.”

“And you’ve known Torchwick as long as you’ve known me. When did you two start getting close?”

“About a year ago, sometime in the autumn. When we had that talk about boundaries- once I didn’t have to worry about him hitting on me, we started hanging out all the time.”

“And when did you start thinking you might have feelings for him?”

“Like… a couple days ago, honestly. But I think it’s been building for a bit longer.”

“I see. And… why tell me? Why not go to Torchwick?”

“Honestly?” Tai shrugged. “I don’t want to hurt him. What if I’m wrong about this?”

“That’s fair.” She downed the last of her coffee and smiled. “All right. I have a theory, and I’d like to test it. Are you free tonight?”

“I can be.”

“Good. I’m going to call up Snow, we haven’t had a night out in awhile, and we’re going to go to a couple of clubs. I’d like to see if this is a blanket change or if it’s just a singular exception.”

“Which do you think?”

“To be honest… I’m not sure it matters. Sexuality can be fluid, but it isn’t for everyone. This could be a case of your sexuality changing for some reason…  _ or _ Torchwick could have just uncovered something that was already there. Either way, if you are attracted to Torchwick, then like you said, what does it matter?”

“Well if I’ve ruled out an entire dating pool for no reason, it would be nice to know moving forward. I haven’t exactly had the best love life, and I’m tired of being alone. That’s another thing, too- I see so much of Roman, and I spend so much time thinking about how lonely I am, how do I know this isn’t just… talking myself into something? And if it is, I’d rather figure it out before break the guy’s heart. He deserves better than to be yanked around while I try to figure myself out.”

Glynda gave him a small smile. “Well you definitely care about him.”

_ “That’s _ never been a question. He’s worth caring about.”

“Then we’ll figure this out, so you don’t hurt him in the process.” She reached into her shirt for her phone. “I’ll call Snow and tell her what’s going on. How much do you want her to know? I can give her an excuse for why we’re going out, if you like.”

“Tell her if you want to, I don’t mind. Just make sure it doesn’t make it past you two. I don’t want this to turn into the next gossip in the group chat.”

“Whoops, I just texted everything to Ozpin.”

“Oh  _ god _ now everyone is going to know.” He rolled his eyes, and laughed, and then reached over to touch her free hand with his. “Thanks for your help, Glynda. It means a lot.”

“Well, you’re my friend. I do my best.”

-/-

James got home to find the girls upstairs and Qrow in their room, lounging on their bed with his phone in hand. Judging by the papers scattered around the foot of the bed, he was taking a break from working; James could get behind a break, so he shed his shoes and stripped down to his undershirt before sprawling out across the head of the bed, inchworming around until he had his head in Qrow’s lap.

Qrow moved his phone aside and grinned down at him. “Hello.”

“Hello to you too.” He felt around for Qrow’s free hand and moved it pointedly to his hair; Qrow laughed and obediently started petting him.

“I swear sometimes you’re just a literal cat,” he teased, turning his attention back to his phone (mobile game, by the looks of things, but James couldn’t tell from here). “One of these days I expect you’ll just start purring.”

“If I do you’ll just make fun of me. Plans tonight?”

“Grading papers, mostly. Tai’s going out with Glynda, says she’s helping him with something. Take out all right for dinner? I don’t feel like cooking.”

“You should have called, I’d have picked something up on the way home. Where were you thinking?”

“The Garden sound good? I’m in the mood for sesame chicken.”

“Fine by me.”

“All right, I’ll go ask the girls what they want and call it in.” He paused, and, “You have to actually get off me so I can get up.”

“Unfortunate but true.” James rolled aside, and reached for his bag as Qrow left the room. He had, by his reckoning, about five or six minutes before Qrow got back, so he had to move quick.

Attached to their room was a bathroom and a large walk-in closet, and on the other side of both was the room they’d turned into James’ workroom (the other door to which opened up beside the foyer and across from the living room, which suited James immensely). James slipped into the room now and fumbled his keys out of his pocket to get to the bottom drawer on his desk.

The bottom drawer wasn’t exactly for  _ secrets. _ Mostly it was for important papers he felt needed that little bit of extra protection. But he also had the box where he kept his most precious mementos of Josef, which was what he went for now. It was the one place in the house where he could count on Qrow not looking, even if he had to go into the drawer for some reason.

He tucked the ring box into the keepsake box, and then hesitated. There was a picture of him and Josef stuck into the lid, a photo from the early days of their relationship.

“I hope this is what you wanted for me,” he murmured. Maybe it was his imagination, but it almost seemed like a twinkle of approval danced across photo-Josef’s eyes. James blinked, and then shook his head.

“Jimmy?”

James hurried to tuck the keepsake box back into the drawer and pushed it closed. “I’m in here,” he called, and looked up as Qrow appeared in the doorway. “Ordered yet?”

“Was about to. You just want your usual?”

“Sounds good.” He reached into his bag and took out his books. “Want to do your grading in here? I’d welcome the company.”

“Yeah, let me get this taken care of and I’ll grab my stuff. I really need to get my own desk at some point, now we’ve got space for one…”

He trailed off as he disappeared back into the bedroom, and James could hear him calling their order in at the Garden- he leaned down to lock the drawer back and get his own work started, half an ear on Qrow and half his mind on his plans. He’d need to talk to Nora first and foremost: he wasn’t about to ask Qrow to marry him without his daughter’s blessing.

(Not that he had doubts about getting it, but still. It just wouldn’t sit right with him.)

When Qrow came back in, James said, “I was thinking I might take Nora out this weekend. It’s been a while since we did some one-on-one time.”

“Bet she’d like that.” He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the end of the desk, a stack of papers in one hand and a red pen twirling absently in the other- but it was only a minute or so before he realized James was watching him. He looked up and cocked an eyebrow at him. “What? Got something to say, Ironwood?”

James smiled, and shook his head. “Nothing. Just thinking about you.”

Qrow’s cheeks turned pink, and he turned his attention back to his papers, muttering to himself in mock disdain while James turned to his own work.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fullyclothed Gentlemen. Extremely successful Canadian rock band from the nineties and Glynda's gaywakening.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glynda and Snow take Tai out to help him question his sexuality. Meanwhile, there's a storm brewing in the underground and Junior gives Roman an out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished a chapter last night so ~y'all know what that means~

-/-

“Glynda says you’re gay now,” was Snow’s greeting when she joined Glynda and Tai outside of Release the Grounds. Tai turned an unimpressed look on Glynda.

“That is not what I said and you know it,” she said. “I just said he’s questioning his sexuality so we’re going to do some tests.”

“What kind of tests?” Tai asked, trailing after the pair as they began heading for Glynda’s car.

“I just want to put you in with people who are actively seeking partners and see how you respond. We’re looking for patterns. That’s all.”

“That sounds so much less ominous than what you said earlier.”

-/-

That was what she said, anyway. What she actually meant was that she and Snow were taking Tai to various gay bars and pointing out men and asking his thoughts on them.

“Could be Roman is your type,” Snow said. “What does that guy make you think?”

She pointed at a young man with red hair tied into a ponytail. Tai frowned.

“He doesn’t really look like Roman, you know. His hair isn’t even the right shade of red- and that’s not his natural color, so does hair color even count?”

“What about that guy? He’s got the same body type as Roman.”

Tai looked him over, and shrugged. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for. I’ve never looked at Roman’s body and thought ‘yep that sure is a sexy body’ or anything.”

“Ooh, that brings up a point. Is this crush of yours sexual or just romantic?”

Tai turned a brilliant shade of red and squeaked, which got a grin out of Snow.

“Yes?”

He sighed. He wasn’t sure how to explain that he  _ had _ thought about kissing Roman, ever since the whole idea of a crush had come up, but much like his crush at all, he wasn’t sure whether that was prompted by genuine desire or just trying to talk himself into things. Besides, his imagination had never gotten past kissing: he had no frame of reference for anything more, and was not yet ready to go looking for one.

Not to mention Roman was surprisingly body shy. His everyday clothing consisted of bare minimum three layers, and Tai had never seen him without at least a t-shirt, even in situations where less would be fine. He couldn’t even begin to picture what lay beyond kissing when he didn’t even know what the body he was imagining was supposed to look like.

He laid out all of this as best as he could, while Snow watched him with fascination and a growing smile and Glynda just studied him closely.

“Well,” Snow said as they left later. “If it turns out you are gay now, you’ve just opened a huge new dating pool for yourself. Every guy in there was eyeing you with interest.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Glynda said. “But he is a bit like catnip for mlm. I wonder what it is about you that makes you so attractive to them?”

“Wow, Glynda, thanks. You’re really good at flattery, you know that?”

“Don’t listen to her,” Snow said, looping an arm through Tai’s as they headed back to the car to go to their next destination. (To ease any reader worry, Snow had appointed herself designated driver, being not much of a drinker herself.) “Glynda’s notoriously picky even when it comes to women. Lord knows how I made the cut.”

“You deserved to,” Glynda said, sliding into the car. Snow preened.

“All right, we’re going to a straighty bar next. I wanna see how you respond to ladies.”

-/-

Tai was a little bit more comfortable in the next bar, though he’d never been the sort to meet people in bars in general, and said as much to Snow when she start wingmanning for him with various women who were eyeing him with obvious interest.

“So explain this,” Glynda said, when he sat down after the third woman Snow had talked him into dancing with. “Why Torchwick? Of all the men you know who would be open to dating you, why was Torchwick the one you went for?”

“Uh… I wasn’t aware that list was that long? Most of my guy friends who are into dudes are in committed monogamous relationships. And even the ones that are polyam, I don’t know why you think they’d be into me specifically.”

Glynda stared at him over the top of her glasses, and snorted. “I told you, you’re like catnip. Even your own brother admits it. So why  _ this _ man?”

“I don’t know.”

“What does Torchwick offer you that the others don’t?”

“I don’t  _ know, _ Glynda.” He tossed his hands up. “Okay? You think if I knew I’d be here with you trying to figure this out? Roman is special, all right? I can’t tell you  _ why, _ he just  _ is. _ He’s- he’s-” He made an aborted motion with his hands, trying to seize the right words from the air, and shrugged. “I don’t  _ know. _ I just know that I’m happier with him than without, and the thought that I could be wrong about this and end up breaking his heart is  _ terrifying _ so I want to get this right before I say anything to him about it.”

“Hmm.” Glynda glanced up as Snow dropped into the seat beside him, and then turned back to Tai and said, “Well, you definitely are attracted to him.”

“Yeah, that’s what I came here to find out.”

“No, she means you  _ definitely are _ attracted to him,” Snow said. “That’s not what we’ve been trying to figure out.”

“Uh what?”

Glynda sighed. “When you questioned your sexuality in high school, was gay the only option you considered? Did any other sexualities occur to you as possibilities?”

“I mean, obviously I wondered if I was bi. In college when Qrow came out I briefly wondered about pan, but, I don’t know, from where I’m standing I’m not actually sure what the difference is.”

“It’s subtle,” Snow said. “Mostly based on which one is meaningful to the person in question, though there are differences if you dig deep enough. But there are other options, too. A whole alphabet soup of letters. What about ace?”

“I am very obviously not ace,” he said.

“But did you  _ consider _ it, I mean?”

“Oh. I-” He paused, and thought back to that time. The idea had crossed his mind, of course, but it hadn’t taken much to rule it out the first time Raven kissed him. “I… thought about it, and ruled it out.”

Snow and Glynda exchanged a look, and Glynda reached over to touch his hand.

“Has anyone ever explained demisexuality to you?”

-/-

When Tai finally got home, James was the only one awake. He was in the kitchen sorting laundry, and judging by his thoughtful expression was doing so because his mind wouldn’t let him sleep. Tai moved to the opposite side of the table and started folding towels, wondering if he should ask.

“Have fun with Glynda?” James asked suddenly.

“Not really. We weren’t going out to have fun, she was doing some experimenting. By the way, she found out you told us about the Fullyclothed Gentlemen concert and said she’s going to kill you in your sleep.”

James chuckled, and shook his head. “If she thinks that’s the most embarrassing story I can tell about our childhood…” He smiled down at the clothes he was sorting, and then said, “I bought an engagement ring today.”

The towel Tai was folding fell out of his hand. He stared. “Wow. Really?”

James nodded. “Been shopping for a couple weeks now, found the right one today. It’s hidden in my desk. I can show you if you want, if you don’t mind waiting till Qrow’s not around.”

“Yeah I- I definitely want to see it.” He picked the towel up, and stared down at it for a minute. “How long have you… I mean…”

“Since June, I think. After that big fight- that’s when I started thinking about it.”

“Not when most people have romantic epiphanies.”

“Most people don’t have deep-seated anger issues they’re terrified will drive people away if they let them show.”

Tai gave him a sharp look. “Try explaining that in a way that’s a little less concerning to your boyfriend’s brother.”

James raised an eyebrow at him, and shook his head. “I don’t mean like that. Obviously I do my best to keep my temper under control. But I’m human, I slip up, I make mistakes. And when Qrow and I were fighting, after the point I lost my temper, I still never worried that we wouldn’t… I  _ knew _ we would work things out. That this was something we could get through. I had this- this ironclad faith in  _ us _ that cut straight through the terror I would normally feel.”

“Hmm.” Tai studied him a moment longer, and then seemed to allow it, because he went back to folding.

James went on. “Obviously I don’t ever want to hurt him. But knowing that when I mess up, we’ll be able to work our way back, that a mistake or a slip-up is not the end of the line, that’s… a very powerful feeling. He knows the worst parts of me and still loves me. And thinking about that in hindsight, I just. Knew what I wanted.”

“So when are you planning it?”

“I don’t know yet. I don’t have anything planned out yet. And I want to talk to the girls. I’m taking Nora out this weekend to ask for her blessing.”

“I’m  _ pretty _ sure you’ll get it,” Tai said, amused.

“I’d still like to talk to her first.”

“I mean, yeah. I’m just saying. If she doesn’t just immediately start trying to plan your wedding there and then, I’ll be surprised.”

“Which is the other thing I need to talk to her about. Getting her to keep things quiet until I’ve had a chance to get everything ready.”

They’d finished the laundry. James set the baskets at the end of the table to be retrieved in the morning, and sat down, pinching at tired eyes. “You know Qrow better than I do. Do you think he’s, you know,  _ ready _ for this? Am I wasting my time here?”

“Honestly? I have no idea.” Tai sat as well. “According to Roman, he’s expressed explicit intention of spending the rest of his life with you. Point in your favor. But he also very recently had another long talk with Nora about how she needs to stop trying to push you both to the altar. So I couldn’t even begin to guess.” He offered a small smile. “You want me to find out?”

“If you like. That would be helpful.”

“I’ll see what I can manage, then.” He stood and headed out, calling a sleepy good night while he headed to his room.

(They’d put Tai in the master bedroom, which was the opposite side of the house than James and Qrow, but didn’t have an extra room attached. The door was right beside the stairwell that led up to the girls’ rooms, though, which suited Tai immensely.)

Once he was gone, James hauled himself up and headed to his own room, where Qrow had long since fallen asleep, or so it seemed. When he peeled back the covers and crawled in, Qrow cracked his eyes open and wiggled over to limpet onto him.

“Missed you,” he mumbled, while James tucked the covers back around them both. Judging by his voice he was already drifting back to sleep; James reached over to switch the lamp off, and by the time he’d settled in completely Qrow’s breathing was a steady warmth against his neck.

-/-

Elsewhere in town, Roman was lounging in his chair in Junior’s office, an ice pack held over one eye, the other glaring up at the ceiling while Junior talked.

“I have been hurt a lot worse than this in the past,” he said finally, cutting Junior off mid-sentence. “A black eye is nothing. No one will even notice since my hair covers that side.”

“It’s not  _ just _ because you got punched, it’s because you got  _ sloppy. _ And that’s not the first time- you’ve been slipping lately.”

Roman scoffed. “Just go ahead and fire me so you can make Tukson your new right hand, I know that’s what we’re getting at.”

“That is  _ not _ what this is  _ about,” _ Junior growled. “This is about  _ you. _ You’re going to get hurt if this keeps up.”

“That’s  _ always _ been a risk, though! Newsflash, but this is a dangerous job!”

“And it’s one that you’ve previously been really good at! You slipping up is putting you and my boys in danger, and I’d rather not have any of them come home and tell me you’ve been killed.”

“I’m not going to get killed.”

“You  _ could.” _

“So could you!”

“This isn’t about  _ me! _ And  _ I’m _ not the one slipping up!” He sighed and buried his head in his hands, taking a few deep breaths before going on. “Roman, I’m worried about you. What’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on, I’m just.” He sighed and pulled the ice pack away, feeling the puffy swelling of his eye as an excuse not to finish his thought.

“Roman?”

“I’m  _ tired. _ Emotionally speaking, I mean. I’m exhausted.”

“Then stop,” Junior said, and when Roman glowered at him, held up his hands in surrender. “All right, not completely, then. Take some time off. Work on your degree, spend some time just running the bar for me, hang out with Neo. If you decide to make it permanent, then that’s fine, if you get down the line and are ready to come back, then I’ll welcome you with open arms. But Roman- this can’t keep up. It’s going to get you killed.”

“I’m  _ fine.” _

“Maybe this time. What about next time? Or the time after that?”

“I knew the risks when I signed up. This isn’t the sort of job you retire from.”

“It is if your boss says it is.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Look, just- just for the rest of the year. Take a few months. Gods know you’ve earned it. We’ll talk again after the new year, maybe all you need is some Roman time.”

Roman returned the ice pack to his eye and resumed glaring at the ceiling with a huff. “Fine.”

“Besides, school is a full time concern for you now. Take some time to focus on that.”

“I  _ said _ fine.”

“All right, Roman.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tai may not be a bear in canon but he is in my heart and also my au. 
> 
> (This is a good time to remind everyone that there's a whole list of characters I've made varying degrees of fat for this au because unlike cRWBY, I'm not a coward.)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Qrow is Suffering(tm), but at least James is there to hold him up while he does. Meanwhile, the girls are scheming, but they're not all scheming on the same page.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Retcon note: I namedropped Neon as one of Qrow's past foster kids; this is being retconned since at the time I didn't have any plans for her.
> 
> Also, I'd like to stress that "Amity Aquarium" is not a reference to Amity Arena but is a nod to an original work of mine (Shark Teens, for those of you familiar) and I wasn't even thinking about the connection when I namedropped it. Amity Arena's in-universe counterpart hasn't been introduced yet, mainly because I don't know yet where it is.

-/-

“-so Flowers had this new friend of his from his fancy school, like Neon or whatever stupid name she had-”

“-said Mercury.”

“-and she was a cuuuuunt. Like, I’m not surprised Flaherty would be pals with her, they’re perfect for each other.”

“I think you’ve used Flaherty before.”

“Ah, damn, am I repeating myself?”

“What was so bad about her?”

“Eh, she’s just really rude.”

James chuckled. “The greatest of sins. Did you have fun, at least?”

“Oh, yeah, it was nice to skate with someone who knew what she was doing, though that did leave Em to skate with Flynt and  _ god, _ if he doesn’t get his hands off of her-” He huffed down the line. “-anyway, Em told me that Neon said I was cute, so. You know.”

“Ah, to be fourteen and hormonal. So do you like this girl or not?”

_ “Not. _ But, you know, if she asked, you know, I  _ would. _ If she asked.”

“But she would have to ask,” James guessed. “Is that it?”

“Yeah! You get it.”

“I think I do. Just be careful? I don’t think you’re in any danger from a bit of flirtation with someone abrasive, but it’s easy to miss the red flags if you’re not looking for them. You could end up being really bad for each other.”

“Wow, way to kill the fun vibe. Thanks for the reminder, Professor Fun Police.”

“You know, I worked really hard for that doctorate…”

“Tch, you’d hate it if I started calling you Dr, and you know it.”

“Never know if you don’t try.”

“I know  _ you. _ So what have you got going on this weekend?”

“I’m taking Nora up to the Argus Aquarium for some us time.”

“Good timing, they’re hosting a traveling octopus exhibit from some other aquarium.”

“I think I heard something about that. The octopodes are a newly discovered species, right? And Amity Aquarium has the only specimens?”

“Did you seriously just use the correct plural form of octopus?”

“Octopuses and octopodes are both correct, actually.”

“God, what a nerd. Did you get beat up a lot in high school? I bet you did.”

“I got teased a lot. My terrifying older sister made sure things never went too far, though.”

Mercury cackled. A car door slammed outside, signalling that Qrow had arrived home with the kids. “I’ll just bet she did. Anyway, you guys should come by the shop. Hazel finally deemed my work good enough to put on the sales floor and you can get some hazelnut fudge courtesy of yours truly.”

“Hazelnut fudge.”

“I am not a subtle man. It’s funny, though, I promise. You just need to not have had your sense of humour surgically removed.”

“Unfortunately, they don’t let you into No Fun Police Academy unless you’re willing to go under the knife. I had to have it removed, otherwise I couldn’t get my license to rain on your parade.”

This got him a muffled snicker, like Mercury was trying not to let on he was actually laughing, and before James could say anything else the door burst open and Penny came in and pounced him. He caught her with one arm and spun her around before setting her down on his desk.

“Is that Penny?” Mercury asked. “Hand me over, I want to talk to her now.”

James rolled his eyes, and handed the phone to Penny. “Mercury wants to talk to you now.”

Her eyes lit up, she took the phone eagerly.

“Mercury! Guess what! I am getting chickens!” A few beats, and, “Yes! Uncle Tai is helping me build a pen for them and then a friend of his is going to let me pick a few of his pullets to raise!”

She slid off of the desk then and headed out, still chattering excitedly, just as Qrow came in and claimed the spot for himself, leaning back enough to groan at the ceiling.

“I am going to murder Oz in his sleep,” he told the ceiling, and then turned to cock an eyebrow at James once he had. “So how was your day, o light of my life?”

“Hmm.” James held out a hand and pulled Qrow over; once he was close enough, he collapsed bonelessly, James’ solid presence the only thing preventing him from hitting the floor. “Why are you going to murder Ozpin in his sleep?”

Qrow grunted into James’ shoulder, and leaned his head back. “You know what program that fucker has me doing this year? Go on, take a wild guess.”

“Winter holidays?” James guessed.

“Win- wait, yeah. How did you know?”

“From what you’ve told me, he likes to rotate the teachers around. You did Halloween last year and Thanksgiving the year before. Winter holidays is the only one left in the first half of the school year, and he wouldn’t have told you this far in advance if it was going to be one of the programs from the second half of the year.”

“Well… you’re right, there.” He sighed. “It’s the hardest one to plan for, because you have to accommodate about fifteen different holidays and there’s always someone wants to make a big stink that it’s not a Christmas program-” This accompanied by an eyeroll- “-and we only get three weeks to prepare, so I have to start doing everything I can to get things arranged  _ now.” _

“I’m sure you’ll think of something fun.”

“Hmm.” There was a brief moment of silence before Qrow finally resumed having bones and stood, pulling them both toward the desk so he was seated on it, James leaned over him. He stole a kiss. “So how  _ was _ your day?”

“Oh… you know… the usual…” James leaned closer until their noses were nearly touching, bracing all of his weight on his right arm while his left slipped under Qrow’s shirt, spider-crawling up his side. “Nothing of note, really…”

“Then you can-” He’d found Qrow’s ticklish spot; Qrow sputtered and squirmed away, letting out a huff of laughter before-

“Mr. Branwen, are you back here?”

-the door, left a bit ajar when Penny left, swung open to reveal Clover. James and Qrow both sighed.

“Why is Clover here?” James asked, putting just enough space between himself and boyfriend to talk.

“He followed me home,” Qrow admitted. “I didn’t think he’d follow me back here, Ruby offered him refreshments so I left him in the kitchen.”

“Mm.” James stole one last little peck of a kiss and stood, parting the pair while he turned to Clover. “And how are you this evening, Clover?”

“Pretty good!” he said, seemingly oblivious to what he’d interrupted. “Penny came in with the phone and she and Ruby got distracted by whoever they were talking to, so I came to find you.”

“Well I was just explaining to Jimmy about the winter program so he can help us brainstorm. Did you ever get your refreshments?”

“Yes, Ruby gave me a juice box and a packet of graham crackers.”

Qrow sighed. “All right, wait here, I’m going to go get something more substantial. We might be at this awhile.”

-/-

As classes went, Roman’s accounting class wasn’t much fun, but it did have one advantage- it let out at the same time as Tai’s last class for the day, which meant a small window of time in which he got Tai entirely to himself while he wrapped everything up on campus before heading home. Roman wandered into the classroom just as the last student was leaving; Tai looked up at his entry, and graced him with that grin that Roman had noticed only seemed to exist for him.

“Hey, Roman,” he said, throwing his bag over his shoulder and joining him at the door. “I’ve just got some things to take care of in my office, and then do you wanna go grab dinner somewhere?”

Well now, that was unusual. Tai could generally be coaxed into coffee, and sometimes initiated, they had a standing movie night, and occasionally, if Roman caught him in the right mood, he’d agree to dinner, but he’d never been the one to issue the invitation. Roman brightened, and chanced taking Tai’s arm- a habit he’d developed that, to his delight, Tai never seemed to mind.

“Sounds good. What’s the occasion?”

“No occasion. It’s been a long day and I want to hang with you a bit before I go home.”

“Well! Now I feel special. Where did you have in mind?”

“Eggs, Pursued By A Bear sound good?”

Roman froze in his tracks, unintentionally dragging Tai to a halt as well. He’d expected fast food, maybe Honey, Do if he wanted something a tier above fast food. Eggs, Pursued By A Bear was the sort of restaurant you went in and sat down and had a waitress bring you your food. It was the sort of place you had to leave a tip.

“Roman?”

“Are you sure there’s no occasion?”

Tai laughed, a little startled. “There’s no occasion! I can’t take my friend out to dinner without there being an occasion?”

“You  _ can, _ in theory…” Roman studied him close. There was a lie there- no, an ommission. He was holding something back.

Tai rolled his eyes. “Look, I felt bad about blowing you off for coffee last week so I wanted to make it up to you.”

That, too, was a lie, but then so had been his excuse for canceling their plans last minute, so Roman decided to accept this, for the moment at least. He resumed their easy stroll down to the parking lot.

“I suppose I’ll allow that. I’d hate to discourage you from treating me to dinner to make up for skipping coffee.”

This got him a laugh- a real one, at least that was the truth- but Roman had already set this latest lie into a pile with the others to be analyzed later.

-/-

Yang was up to her elbows in pie crust dough when Qrow’s phone buzzed. Qrow was trying to pull chicken across from her. He huffed.

“Hey Jimmy, you wanna grab that? My hands are full.”

James answered the phone with a very professional sounding voice that had Qrow muttering, ‘Knew he did it on purpose,’ at the chicken. A minute or so later, James ended the call.

“That was Tai, he’s going out for dinner with Torchwick tonight so he won’t be home till late.”

“Sounds good.” Qrow set the chicken aside and moved over to wash his hands before grabbing a block of chicken broth from the freezer.

“Dad has been going out a lot more since we moved here,” Ruby said from her spot at the counter, watching Yang help Qrow make dinner.

“He’s probably taking advantage of having a couple of live-in babysitters around,” Qrow said, barely audible over the clatter in the cabinets while he dug a saucepot out. “That, and you kids are older and don’t need constant supervision anymore.”

“I think it’s a good thing,” Yang said, holding her pie crust up for Qrow to inspect and beaming when he flashed a thumbs up of approval. “Dad doesn’t get out enough.”

“He gets out plenty when Mr. Torchwick invites him,” Nora said, exchanging a significant look with Yang.

“I’m a little worried about that, actually,” James said.

Qrow jabbed a stirring spoon in his direction. “Hey, we talked about this.”

“That’s not what I mean. I’m just worried about the inevitable fallout when- well, you know.”

They exchanged a significant look of their own. Qrow turned back to stirring the broth.

“Perhaps, if Uncle Tai has more freedom to go out now, he will start dating,” Penny suggested, exchanging her own significant look with Ruby, who brightened immediately.

“Got someone specific in mind?” Qrow asked, half an eye on Ruby, who looked like she was conspiring.

“No! Of course not! Besides, the only single ladies we know are Mrs. Soleil and Ms. Whitney-”

“-and Diamond isn’t interested in dating, which leaves Whit. I see.” He sighed. “All right, let’s go ahead and get this out of the way. Don’t go scheming trying to get Tai and Whitney together.”

“We would  _ never,” _ Ruby said, coming to Penny’s rescue.

Qrow raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Mm-hmm. Just like you would ‘never’ have schemed to get me and Jimmy together?”

“Hey, that worked!” Ruby protested. “Not that we were going to try anything, but- you know. It worked.”

“You got  _ very _ lucky,” Qrow said. “Look, Whitney is not in any kind of stable emotional state to even think about dating right now, okay? And I’m not just speculating, this is straight from the horse’s mouth. Whatever you kids might hypothetically be planning, don’t go there, okay?”

Penny and Ruby exchanged another significant look. “Okay,” Penny said, and Ruby added a hasty, “Not that we  _ were _ planning anything.”

“Hmm.” Qrow turned a questioning eyebrow on Yang and Nora. “What about you two?”

“Hey, I already learned my lesson about meddling,” Nora said, turning back to her GameBuddy, while Yang gave a secretive smile to her pie crust and added, “And I definitely don’t think Dad would be interested in dating  _ Ms. Whitney.” _

There was something in her tone that told Qrow she wasn’t saying more than she was, but rather than pursue this, he turned his attention to James and said, “Any time you wanna back me up here, go ahead.”

James looked from Ruby to Penny to Qrow, a spark of mischief dancing in his eyes. “I don’t know, they have a pretty good track record for success-”

Qrow cut him off with another jab of his broth spoon. “James Augustine Terrence Ironwood, if you encourage these kids to start matchmaking again-”

“Relax, Qrow. I’m just kidding.” He added, to the girls, “I’m  _ kidding. _ Don’t go playing with other people’s love lives, especially when you know they aren’t open to being set up.”

This got him matched sighs, and mumbles of agreement, and Yang said, “Is Augustine Terrence really your middle name?”

“It’s Yan, actually. I don’t know where Augustine came from.”

“I didn’t actually know your middle name and had to put something there,” Qrow said, setting aside his broth and grabbing a casserole dish down from the top cabinet. “Yan? Really?”

“Problem?”

“No. I think it’s cute.”

“How have you guys been going out for almost two years-”

“Year and a half-”

“-and you didn’t even know his middle name?”

“Never came up.” Qrow shrugged. 

James added, “That’s the beauty of relationships, though. Even a couple years in you’re still learning new things about each other.”

“But I still think it should have come up. What about when you were signing for the house together?”

“Ah, well.” Qrow gave James a sly look. “That would have required Jimmy to have a legible signature.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my signature.”

“It turns into a squiggle after the a,” Qrow went on, mirth dancing in his eyes. “Somewhere in the middle there’s a spike with a hat. I think that’s the I.”

“Signatures aren’t supposed to be legible, they’re supposed to be unique.”

“Well, it’s a unique squiggle, so no danger there.” They’d finished putting the pie together; Qrow watched Yang put it in the oven and nodded approvingly. “All right, that just has to cook for awhile, and then dinner’ll be ready.”

-/-

Now that the pie was in the oven, the girls headed upstairs to their ‘lounge’, the second floor landing that the adults had designated as a common area for the kids’ personal use. As soon as they were all there, Ruby and Penny turned expectant looks to Yang.

“Well?” Ruby demanded. “What was that about?”

“What was what about?”

“About Dad, and how you definitely don’t think he’d want to date Ms. Whitney.”

“Your tone implied that Ms. Whitney was the variable in question, suggesting you think he may want to date someone else,” Penny added.

Yang and Nora exchanged looks. Nora nodded. Yang turned back to the other two and said, “I think Dad might have a crush on Mr. Torchwick.”

-/-

Qrow startled when a muffled shriek of laughter floated down from the girls’ lounge, and then turned back to James. “So I heard from Torch that you guys decided to be lab partners in your Geology class,” he said.

“When did he tell you?”

“Called me on my lunch break. Said to never say he did nothing for me.”

“Of course he did,” James muttered, and then softened his expression at Qrow’s pointed stare. “Sorry. It was Professor Royal’s idea, actually. He assigned everyone their partners, and decided since Torchwick and I are the only non-traditional students in that class we were best suited to each other.”

“Hmm. You didn’t argue?”

“I tried, but honestly…” He shrugged. “I think this may be a good thing? I don’t want to work with Torchwick but if we can learn to work together for the sake of a grade, it should be that much easier to learn to cooperate for your sake, and for Tai’s. Given that you’re much more important.”

“Hmm, smoothie.” He got up and moved over behind James, wrapping his arm around James’ shoulders and nuzzling his neck before speaking. “You know… we were in the middle of something earlier… and there’s about forty minutes before the pie’s done cooking…”

-/-

Ruby broke off her sentence when a loud bang of a door slamming shut echoed up the stairs. She moved over to shut the stairwell door, blocking out any further interruptions.

“Look, it doesn’t matter how much Dad and Mr. Torchwick hang out. Dad is straight.”

“I’m not so sure about that, actually,” Yang said. “I talked to him a few months ago, asked him if he’d had trouble knowing his sexuality, you know? The things he said… I think it’s less that he’s straight and more that he’s only ever been interested in girls.”

“That’s what straight  _ means, _ Yang.”

“No, it means not having any capacity for attraction outside of your opposite binary gender. But Dad had his big love with our moms, and then ever since then his love life has been tied up in that. What if he thought he was straight because he’d just never been attracted to a guy before?”

“That’s stupid. He didn’t meet our moms till college, you mean to tell me he’d  _ never _ had a crush on  _ anyone _ before that?”

“Maybe! I don’t know, I just know that I think there’s a margin for error in how Dad decided he was straight!”

“But even if that was true, why do you think he’d suddenly change that because of Mr. Torchwick, of all people?”

Yang sighed. “I don’t know. Something about the way they interact-”

Nora scoffed. “Please. Have you  _ ever _ seen the way he smiles when he sees Mr. Torchwick? He doesn’t smile like that for  _ anyone _ else.”

“That could mean anything-”

“It  _ means _ he has a crush,” Nora insisted.

“And if he does…” Penny frowned down at her hands. “...Father does not like Mr. Torchwick. If Uncle Tai does have a crush on Mr. Torchwick, and they begin dating, what does that mean for our family?”

All four girls froze, looking uncomfortable at the implications. It was Ruby who broke the silence.

“No one said we couldn’t meddle in people’s non-romantic relationships.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes when I'm writing, my characters will reuse jokes that other characters have used before. The doylest reason for this is that I really love my jokes and like to get a lot of mileage out of them, but I think a good watsonian explanation is that people who hang out together a lot are naturally going to rub off on one another. Yeah, that'll work.
> 
> I was going to give Penny chickens last volume but by the time I remembered I was about twenty chapters in and it would have come up by then.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James talks to Nora, and gets her blessing to marry her dad. Meanwhile, Tai decides it's time he and Roman had a talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little bit short, but that's just because of how the timing landed.
> 
> Y'all have no idea how happy I am to finally be posting this chapter. I've been waiting _years_.

-/-

On Saturday, James and Nora drove up to Argus to visit the aquarium. Nora, in true Nora form, was an endless energy source, and it didn’t take long for James to give up on keeping up with her. Instead he instructed her to not leave the room they were in without him, and took a seat on one of the benches dotting the room, keeping an eye on her while she explored one room and then another, sometimes taking only a few minutes before coming back to drag him to the next, sometimes staying in place for awhile.

But even Nora ran out of energy eventually. In the sea turtle room, she came over and plunked down beside him, taking his arm and draping it over her so she could lean into his side while she went through the pictures she’d taken with the camera on her GameBuddy, explaining her adventures at each tank in detail as if he hadn’t been watching the whole time. James ran the thumb of his free hand over the imprint of the ring in his pocket, trying to decide how best to bring up the subject.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Nora said eventually, when her pictures ran out.

“Sure. What’s on your mind?”

“Why don’t you like Mr. Torchwick?”

“Ah.” James frowned, trying to decide how to best answer the question in a way that she would understand. Beside him, Nora moved out from under his arm and set her GameBuddy back in her pack, turning her full attention on him. He couldn’t stop his fond smile, and then swapped back to a more serious tone. “Qrow is… prone to self-destructive behavior.”

“Why?”

“Well… you’d have to talk to him about that. The gist is that we all respond to trauma differently, and Qrow’s response often involves turning on himself. And Torchwick…” He sighed, and forced down the ire from his tone, “...has a history of encouraging and enabling that behavior. I don’t like him because he’s made Qrow’s tendencies worse in situations where he could have helped.”

Nora nodded, and then stopped nodding, and frowned. “But he and Uncle Tai say that he’s always taken care of him.”

“I… disagree with his methods,” James said carefully.

“But you’re working on getting along. That’s what Un- d- p…” She huffed. “That’s what my dad said.”

James gave her a fond smile. “Still haven’t decided yet?”

She let out a long-suffering sigh. “Nothing  _ feels _ right. And if Penny and I are going to match-”

She cut herself off, suddenly embarrassed. James raised an eyebrow at her. “Match?”

“Okay, I know what you’re going to say, but this isn’t me trying to plan your wedding ahead of time,” she said hastily. “I just mean that when you  _ eventually _ get married, you’ll be my dad too, and he’ll be Penny’s dad, and me and Penny should match. That’s all.”

It made an odd sort of sense, though he didn’t like that it was causing her this much duress and made a note to discuss the matter further- but right now, she’d given him the opening he’d been waiting for. He reached into his pocket for the ring he had tucked in there, and held out a hand for Nora. She put her hand in his, giving him a quizzical look as she did.

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” he explained. “I think- or, I  _ hope- _ that eventually might come sooner than later.” He set the ring in her hand, and while she looked at it, went on, “I want to ask Qrow to marry me. I need your blessing to do so.”

Nora stared, from the ring to him, and then her face lit up and she launched herself into his arms with a laugh. He caught her easily, only narrowly not being knocked off of the bench in the process.

“Okay, okay! Give me that ring back if you’re going to fling yourself around like that, I don’t want it getting lost…”

Once the ring was safely back in his pocket, he stood her in front of him, leaning enough that they were eye level.

“I suppose I can take that as having your approval then?”

“Of course you can have my blessing, but why do you need it? He’s the one you want to marry, not me.”

“That’s not how I see it. Come on, this room is starting to fill up again, let’s move on to somewhere quieter we can talk.”

“There’s a food court outside. We can go out there. You can buy me some fries while you explain to me what you mean.”

“Oh I can, can I? I thought you wanted to go to Thai It On for lunch.”

“Fries aren’t  _ lunch. _ They’re fries.”

“Well. You've got me there.”

-/-

Under normal circumstances, if Weiss invited Penny or Ruby over to see her, the invitation would be extended to the other- but as Ruby had made plans to watch a monster movie marathon with Jaune and Sun today, Weiss had pounced on the chance to get Penny to herself without arousing suspicion, and arranged a playdate.

And if Tai just so happened to be the only one available to bring Penny over and Mother just so  _ happened _ to invite him to stay for tea while the girls played and then they just  _ happened _ to hit it off, well-

“I believe we may be forced to abandon our plans,” Penny said, as the girls left Whitney and Tai to their tea. “Father and Qrow have ordered us not to play matchmaker for Uncle Tai and your mother. Also, Yang and Nora believe he may be attracted to Mr. Torchwick.”

“That sounds like a pretty big spanner in the works,” Weiss said, opening her bedroom door to let Penny in and closing it only after checking that there were no listening ears nearby. She hadn’t seen Whitley since breakfast, so who was to say he wasn’t spying on them? “But Mr. Torchwick is such a butt. Why would Mr. Tai want to date him?”

“I do not know. I do not even know if it is true. We are still investigating the matter. But if he is, we cannot continue our plans.”

“I don’t know, sounds like even more reason to set them up if you ask me. Mr. Tai deserves way better than a butt like Mr. Torchwick.”

“That is, unfortunately, not for us to say.”

“I  _ guess,” _ she admitted, incredibly reluctantly, and then folded her arms around her in thought. “But that’s not important right now. I actually wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What is it?”

“Um, it’s kind of personal so I understand if you don’t want to talk about it with me. You can say no.”

“I cannot say anything until you tell me what it is.” Penny’s brow furrowed. “Weiss, is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine, I just don’t want to ask in a way that will offend you…”

“Ask,” Penny assured her. “I will assume you mean no offense and decide how to go on once I know.”

“All right, well.” She took a deep breath. “How did you… and I guess  _ when _ did you… know… that you’re a girl?”

There was a long silence; Penny frowned down at her hands, brow furrowing deeper in thought. After a few seconds of this, Weiss began to panic.

“I’m sorry! That was crossing a line, wasn’t it? I won’t ask again, please don’t be upset.”

“Oh- no! I am not upset, Weiss. I am simply unsure of how to answer. You see, there was not some specific moment where I just  _ knew. _ It was something that grew over time, and I became more and more aware of a discomfort at being treated as a boy.” She stood, and paced, still in thought. “There were times… when our class would separate into boys and girls, or when Father’s colleagues told him that he must be proud to have me as a son, or when the kind gentleman who bagged our groceries slipped me candy because I had been ‘a well behaved young man’ in the store. When these things happened, there was an itch under my skin, where I could not get at it to scratch, but it was a very, very long time before I understood what was causing this itch.”

“Oh. Huh.” Weiss considered this, and said, a little more hesitantly, “But, um, how could you be sure that you weren’t just… you know, objecting to the  _ expectations _ of being a boy?”

“I cannot say for sure. But Father never placed expectations on my behavior. He let me paint my nails and grow my hair long and pick out dresses when we bought house clothes. But that just made me itchier, because when people objected he always said 'boys may do these things too'. Which is very true, but did not fit. Eventually I asked him if he was sure I was supposed to be a boy, if perhaps there was a mistake when I was a born, and he said I was the only one who could say that. So I said, well, there must have been, because I think maybe I was supposed to be a girl. And now here I am." Penny tilted her head at her friend. “Weiss, are you perhaps wondering if you might not be a girl?”

Weiss shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I don’t feel itchy or dislike being sorted into the girls or anything. But I just- oh, I don’t know. It’s just been on my mind. I was hoping- maybe someone on the other side of things…”

Penny considered. “We-ell… it is different for everyone, of course. And I have heard that the experiences of people who are assigned female and people who are assigned male differ drastically sometimes. Perhaps you would have better luck talking to, maybe, Neptune? Or Mercury? Perhaps they can offer you more insight than I have been able to.”

Weiss reached out and took Penny’s hands, giving her a broad smile. “You’ve offered me plenty of insight- I have a lot to think about now.”

“I hope it is helpful for you. And whatever conclusions you come to, I will be right here to support you.”

“I know you will.” She pulled her into a hug, vibrating a little in relief. “I’m really glad you’re my friend, Penny.”

-/-

It had been almost two weeks since Tai had begun to wonder if he had feelings for Roman, and several days since his discussion with Glynda. In that time, he’d done research on his own, and it seemed to him like Glynda had been right on the money when she suggested demisexual to him. If nothing else, it was as good an explanation as any as to why he’d suddenly, out of nowhere, developed a strong attraction to his very male friend.

So, late that evening, after the girls had gone up to bed (or at least up to their rooms), he decided it was time to take action. He needed to talk to Roman about this, he couldn’t keep it to himself any longer.

“I’m going out,” he told Qrow and James, who were seated on opposite sides of James’ desk to work (Qrow kept saying he needed to get his own desk, but Tai couldn’t help noticing that James had rearranged his workspace to accommodate him). “I need to talk to Roman about something and I don’t want to talk about it over the phone.”

“Anything wrong?” Qrow asked, while James got that uncomfortably tight set to his mouth and eyes that said he was trying not to hate Roman too openly.

“No, I just need to… we need to talk. I’ll be back in awhile.”

“Sure,” Qrow said, and called as he left, “Hey, pick up some milk on the way home!”

-/-

It was a Saturday, so Tai went to Junior’s first, where he found Junior behind the bar, but no Roman, who had taken an earlier shift and had gone home for the night. Tai thanked Junior and went to lean on Roman’s doorbell until he heard the distant annoyed shouts that he was ‘coming already, put your shirt back on’ and then the door flew open.

Roman’s grumpy expression immediately shifted into delight, then fell, and then took on the furrow in his brow that said he was trying very hard not to say the thing he wanted to say. Tai bit down on a surge of fondness, and sighed.

“Go ahead and say it.”

“I mean if I’d known it was  _ you _ I would not be encouraging shirt wearing.”

Tai rolled his eyes. “Can I come up?”

“Sure.” He turned and let Tai up the stairs. “I just threw some mozzarella sticks in the toaster oven, want me to toss a few more in?”

“No, I’m good, thanks. I wanted to talk to you about something, actually.”

“Ominous.” Roman gestured for him to take a seat on the couch, then disappeared into the kitchen. He came back a second later with a plate of mozzarella sticks and two sodas, one of which he handed to Tai before sitting as well. “So what’s up?”

“Oh, um.” Tai stared down at the soda in his hands, suddenly unsure of how to bring up the topic. “I, uh. Hm.”

“Tai?”

“Huh,” Tai said. “You… when did you stop using nicknames for me?”

“What do you mean, when? When we had that whole conversation about how I wasn’t allowed to hit on you anymore.”

“Yeah, but-” He frowned. “Nicknames aren’t hitting on someone. You could have just given me a name that wasn’t… something that didn’t cross any lines.”

“Maybe, but those are more fun. Besides, I’m pretty sure there’s not a single name that I could come up with for you that didn’t sound at least a little bit line-crossy when I said it.”

“I guess. Does that make me special? The only other people I’ve never heard you nickname are Glynda and Junior.”

“Well that’s because Glynda is scary and I don’t want to cross her, and Junior is already a nickname so it’d be redundant. As for you- I just, I didn’t want to annoy you into kicking me out of your life.”

“You didn’t have to worry too hard about that. Actually, I wanted to-”

And broke off, because the door had opened and a girl had come in- Tai recognized her, vaguely; he’d seen her on campus with Tukson a couple of times. She froze as she came in, looking from Roman to Tai and back to Roman, before raising a hand and signing a hesitant query.

Roman cast a sideways glance at Tai, then signed a one-handed reply back, which Tai didn’t see since his arm was over the back of the sofa. The girl frowned, and replied; there followed several moments of silence while the two conversed in rapid fire sign before the girl nodded, flashed an okay, and hurried off to the two bedrooms at the back of the apartment.

A moment or two later, and she came back, a bag slung over her shoulder, and signed a farewell before disappearing back down the stairs. Once they heard the tell-tale slam of the front door that said she was gone, the pair turned back to each other. Roman cleared his throat awkwardly.

“So, um…”

Tai held up a hand to stop him. “Before you go on and start making up excuses, you should know that I do actually understand asl. And I might have trouble following casual sign as well as someone who uses it daily, but I do understand the sign for ‘dad’.”

“Ah.”

Roman had frozen in place, hands clenched over his knees. Tai reached over, hesitant, and then let his hand fall.

“Roman, since when do you have a _daughter?”_

He shrugged. “Since she was born.”

“Since she was…” Tai broke off, did some quick math in his head, and could only draw one conclusion. “But she’s… she's... Roman, _you’re thirty four.”_

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what Weiss' gender is going to end up doing, but I had the thought while I was planning back during volume two and it felt like the right direction to go with the story. So we're all going to find out what Weiss' gender is together, and honestly don't be surprised if by the end of the fic the current standing is "I'll get back to you on that". Sometimes these things take awhile and the narrative point in this case is the journey rather than the destination.
> 
> Either way, I'm excited. Hope y'all are too.


	6. Backstory Intermission 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junior talks to his new stray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: This chapter features unintentional misgendering of a trans character.

-/-

Once more let us back up, to that January day nearly twenty years ago.

Junior tried texting Mallory, feeling the girl might be a little more comfortable talking to her than to him, but she was with a client and couldn’t be there for a good hour, so he was on his own until then.

Meanwhile, the girl on the couch was stirring, and as Junior tried to decide how to handle the situation, she sat up, scrubbing sleep away before spotting him and shooting back into the corner of the sofa in a panic, holding her jacket protectively over her.

Junior held up his hands. “Hey, easy. I’m not going to hurt you- please don’t panic, you’re safe here.”

Unsurprisingly, she didn’t relax. Junior couldn’t blame her; he would be the same in her shoes. He decided to try a new approach, and lowered himself carefully to the floor, making sure to stay across the room and far out of arm’s reach.

“I’m Junior,” he said. “What’s your name?”

She eyed him suspiciously. “Junior’s a weird name for a big guy like you.”

He quirked a smile. “Maybe. I used to work for my father, so the people who worked for him called me Junior. I guess it’s stuck. My real name is Hei Xong- it’s a good name, but Junior feels more approachable, wouldn’t you say?”

She shrugged.

He gave her a minute, and repeated, “What’s your name, girlie?”

“...It’s Roman. And, um…” She trailed off, and stared down at her feet. “...never mind.”

“Well, um. Roman’s a nice name. What are you… doing here?”

Another shrug. “W’s cold outside,” she mumbled, after a moment of waiting, and, even quieter, “Needed s’mwhere warm t’sleep.”

“You couldn’t sleep at home?”

She shrugged once more, and turned her gaze away, hugged her jacket more tightly around her. 

"You couldn't go home?" he guessed, and when she shrunk more, “You don’t have a home?”

“My parents made it clear I wasn’t welcome after they… found out.”

Well, he didn’t have to ask to guess what that meant.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, looking around for something else to say, anything to divert the topic to something more comfortable. His eyes landed on a backpack sitting next to the sofa- it looked like a school backpack, decorated with different colors of marker and several buttons announcing the owner’s interests to the world. He looked over the buttons, looking for anything he could recognize, and his eyes landed on a pair of pride buttons- one a rainbow flag with a pair of interlocking male symbols on it, the other a trans flag with another male symbol.

He pursed his lips thoughtfully. Seemed like this situation had just gotten more complicated.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really can't wait for the next person who live rereads this fic series at me after reading this update and picks up on all the hints I've dropped about Roman being trans over the past two years.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman tells Tai his tragic backstory, and Tai responds in quite possibly the worst way possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for this chapter: features brief backstory discussion of child abuse and neglect.
> 
> This chapter also features the point where I started writing again a couple weeks ago, so y'all are caught up on last spring! Hooraaaaay

-/-

“Mom wasn’t happy when she found out,” Roman finished explaining. “Said I was smarter than that, but if I wanted to act like a grown up I could just go ahead and go. So I left. Lived on the streets for a few weeks before Junior found me, took me in. Gave me a home and a life. He even paid for my surgeries and hormones.”

“Fifteen,” Tai said, something clenching in his middle. “God, that’s so  _ young.” _

Roman snorted. “Who are you telling?”

“But why not tell us?” Tai asked. “We’re your friends, we’d have liked to… you know, know.”

“It tends to bring up too many questions.” He shrugged. “I was twenty five when we met and she was ten. You do the math- everyone else does. Then people inevitably draw one of two conclusions- either I knocked up her mom, or I  _ am _ her mom. So to speak, of course.”

“Nothing wrong with that.”

“It’s not something I like people to  _ know.” _ He folded his arms and turned away. “I can’t get around my sexual partners finding out, but my packaging is irrelevant to anyone else.”

“Sexual partners…” Tai frowned. “Wait, does Qrow know?”

“Mm. He knows I’m trans. I’ve made sure he doesn’t know about Neo.”

“Neo.”

“Neopolitan.” Roman pulled a drawer in the living room cabinet and took out a stack of photos; he flipped through and handed one to Tai. “My little ice cream baby.”

It was a photo from Neo’s birth: in the picture, Roman was sitting up in a hospital bed, a tiny bundle in his arms. Only the baby’s head was visible in the pink blankie, her hair brown on one side and white on the other.

“She has some… pigmentation issues,” Roman explained, taking a seat beside Tai. “And I was high off my dick on painkillers. I thought she looked like a little carton of ice cream. Junior tried to talk me out of it, but I was insistent.”

“It’s cute,” Tai said, casting a questioning eye at the stack of photos in Roman’s hand. Roman caught his meaning and passed them over; Tai immediately began looking through them, burning with curiosity about this side of Roman he’d never seen before. He paused on a photo of Junior chasing a naked, sodden toddler with a towel. “I guess that explains why you and Junior are so close.”

“There aren’t many people I trust. Junior and Mallory… they gave me everything.” He sighed, and reached over to take the pictures back before letting his head fall back on the back of the couch. “Tai… I work very hard to make sure that people don’t find out about this part of my life. You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

“Of course not. I’m not in the habit of spreading people’s secrets around.”

“I know. I just… wanted to make sure, I guess. This isn’t an easy conversation to have, and if people know then I have to have it a lot. People don’t really… know how to mind their own business much.” He was silent, while Tai watched him, that warm fondness he was starting to recognize building once more in his middle. After a few minutes, he looked up again. “Oh, I forgot, you wanted to talk to me about something.”

Tai froze. “Uh… I… I think I need to… I should go.” He stood. “I have some things to think about.”

He hurried off with a few half-hearted farewells; on the couch, Roman murmured, “Sure. See you.”

-/-

Outside, Tai shoved his hands down into his pockets while he headed back to his van. This single revelation changed everything, and he wasn’t sure how to process it.

_ Not everything, _ his thoughts told him.  _ You still feel the way you did before. The only thing that’s changed is now you know what you’re getting yourself into. _

Which, he supposed, was fair. Laying out his feelings for his bachelor friend was one thing- dating a man with a daughter would be a very different thing.

Tai came to a halt over that- he hadn’t, up to this point, given any thought to what end result he was hoping for from telling Roman about his feelings. But that was where this was leading, wasn’t it? Assuming Roman didn’t reject him, the logical next step was dating.

Tai sighed and carried on. “I just… need to think about this some more.”

-/-

The rest of the house was asleep, or at least in their rooms and settled, by the time Tai got back, but when he went to toss the milk in the fridge he found Nora there as well, eating a handful of shredded cheese with the refrigerator door hanging open. He half-smiled fondly and switched the light on.

“We have plates, you know.”

She startled, shedding some of her cheese in the process, and gave him a sheepish look. “I came down to get a glass of juice and the cheese looked inviting.”

“Cheese does tend to do that,” he agreed. He grabbed a napkin from one of the rolls on the counter and cupped it into a bowl in one hand. “And who wants to dirty up a whole plate for one handful of cheese? Buuut, it’s less of a mess if you have some means of containment.”

He passed the makeshift bowl over to her, holding it steady while she dumped her cheese in (scattering more onto the floor) and took it. Once that was done, he grabbed the broom and dustpan from the behind the trashcan and started sweeping up the mess.

“I could have done that,” she said, pausing in her cheese snacking. “It was my mess.”

“I don’t mind. You just enjoy your cheese.”

“Hrm.” She seemed reluctant, but stood watching him and eating cheese for the minute or so it took him to get the cheese swept up. Once her cheese was gone, she said, “Are you dating Mr. Torchwick?”

Tai spun so fast at that that he scattered the contents of the dustpan, sending cheese shreds, dust, and (for some reason) glitter flying all over the kitchen. He stared at her.

“Where did you get an idea like that?”

“Hm.” Nora balled up her paper towel and tossed it away, then took the broom and dustpan from him, gently steering him away so she could begin to sweep everything up. “Just a guess. Are you?”

“I’m not.” He sat down and leaned on the counter, watching her. “Why would you think I was?”

“Because you’re always going out with him. At least once a week, and you have this special smile that you only use for him and you always seem happier when you’ve seen him. So I wondered. Are you dating someone else, then?”

“I’m not dating anyone.”

“Do you want to?”

He squinted suspiciously at her. “Why? Got someone in mind?”

“No.” She’d finished sweeping; she dumped the dustpan (half the glitter clung to it) and put broom and dustpan away. “But Ruby and Penny want you to date Ms. Whitney.”

“I wondered why I kept getting roped into chaperoning playdates. Why are you telling me this?”

“Because the last time we played matchmaker it caused a lot of trouble, and I don’t know if they’re going to stop just because Un- d- my dad made them promise they would.”

“Ah.” Side-eyeing her thoughtfully, he raised an arm in invitation; she pushed a stool over beside him and climbed up to lean into his side. “You girls do understand that Whitney doesn’t want to date again, right?”

“That’s what everyone keeps telling us.”

“But you don’t understand why,” he guessed, and she squirmed a little before nodding. He sighed. How to explain? “It’s that… Whitney just came out of an abusive marriage, one that she entered at nineteen, at an age when most people are still figuring out who they are. And being in that relationship for so long, it had a really bad effect on her understanding of herself. By not jumping right back into dating, she’s taking the time to explore herself and find out who  _ she _ is, what  _ she _ wants. And she’s taking the time to focus on helping her kids heal from the damage Jacques did to them, too. She’s prioritizing healing for herself and her children over a narrative that says she needs a romantic relationship to be whole.”

Nora ‘hmm’ed, and leaned forward to rest her head thoughtfully on her folded arms. “So if we leave her alone, she’ll start dating again eventually on her own?”

“Maybe. She might also decide she’s happier without worrying about a romantic relationship, and devote her life to herself and her kids permanently. That’s for Whitney to decide.”

“You mean like you do? You don’t date much either.”

He raised another brow at her, mind drifting a little in response. If Glynda was right, there was a reason he’d always struggled to date, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to talk about that with his family just yet. Instead he shrugged.

“It’s not exactly the same. I’d  _ like _ to date, but I struggle to find the connection I need to be able to commit past the first date. But in the meantime, I find enough fulfillment in my family that, yes, you could say Whitney and I share certain viewpoints. I definitely understand where her priorities come from. While our reasons weren’t the same, I was in the same place she is after my marriage ended. Dating again after a long-term relationship ends isn’t easy for a lot of reasons.”

“So Ms. Whitney is happy even if she isn’t dating?”

“There’s more to life than dating, sweetie. There’s more to love than romance. Whitney is building meaningful relationships with people for the first time since she married Jacques, and that’s just as important as if she decided she was ready to date again.”

“I guess that’s true,” Nora allowed. “Weiss says she and Kali are taking a painting class at the rec center, and Mr. Hazel is teaching her and Weiss and Whitley how to bake. He comes over every Sunday now.”

“There, you see? She has friends and she’s learning new skills and interests. That sounds pretty happy to me.”

“Well… I... all right.” She sighed. “Weiss was worried that maybe her mom was lonely and that’s why she was doing all those things.”

“She wasn’t wrong. Whitney was pretty lonely. But she’s wrong about the solution to that loneliness.” He rubbed her back reassuringly. “Whitney’s going to be fine. Tell Weiss she doesn’t have to worry about her, okay?”

_ “Would _ you date Ms. Whitney? If she was ready to date again, I mean.”

His hand stilled. He tried to imagine Whitney in a romantic context, and found himself unable to. He shrugged. “I don’t think so. But who knows what the future holds? I’ve learned very recently that you shouldn’t say never for these things.”

It was her turn to raise an eyebrow at him, but he just shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s not important. Why don’t you go back to bed? It’s late.”

“Yeah, all right.” She pushed to her feet with a yawn and trudged upstairs, a thoughtful furrow in her brow.

-/-

Roman was having trouble sleeping. His conversation with Tai was running through his head; the exhaustion of having The Conversation with him was weighing him down but the burning curiosity over why Tai had really come to see him was keeping his mind running in circles.

And Neo had gone out to the campgrounds with Tukson for some spontaneous camping. Leaving at almost midnight. He sat up and pinched the bridge of his nose, forcibly reminding himself that 1, Tukson was one of the few people he trusted, inasmuch as he trusted anyone, and 2, Neo was a big girl capable of making her own choices.

When repeating this to himself did, unsurprisingly, nothing for his mood, he stood with a huff and rummaged around on the floor until he found a pair of sweatpants and an undershirt, throwing both on before trudging downstairs and letting himself into the bar by the backdoor.

Junior was in his office doing paperwork, but he took one look at Roman’s state of (un)dress and set his work aside.

“What’s wrong?”

“Why do you assume something’s wrong?” Roman hooked his chair with his cane and pulled it to him before dropping into it.

“Because you don’t normally leave your apartment without at least three layers of clothing and eyeliner on point.”

“Don’t say on point, it sounds stupid when you say it.”

“Stop deflecting. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Roman.”

“I couldn’t sleep, all right? Just wanted a change of scenery.” He leaned back and picked at the head of his cane with a frown dangerously close to a pout. “Jesus, can’t even have insomnia without the third degree around here.”

“Hm.” Junior watched him thoughtfully, and, “Tai was here earlier. Looking for you.”

“He found me,” Roman told his cane, refusing to let any expression show.

“What did he want? He seemed anxious about something.”

“Couldn’t say. Neo came in and we ended up discussing my Traumatic Backstory™. Then he bailed.”

“So that’s what’s bothering you.”

“It’s not  _ bothering _ me,” he snapped, and glared. “Why would it be bothering me? I only made myself  _ vulnerable _ and revealed a huge part of who I am to one of the few people whose opinion  _ matters _ to me only to have him run out without explanation. What about that sounds like something that should  _ bother _ me?” He leaned forward with a groan and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes, watching spots pop across the darkness. “I really… thought…”

Thought he was  _ different, _ his thoughts filled in. Thought Tai would be the one person he could trust with something like this, thought Tai would be understanding, thought Tai would accept him.

“I was being stupid.”

“It isn’t stupid to want to trust people,” Junior said, and then sighed. “Why don’t you come home with me tonight? You might sleep better, and if you pout Mallory will probably make you pancakes for breakfast.”

“M’not a little kid,” Roman mumbled, pulling his hands free of his eyes but otherwise maintaining this position. “I don’t need you coddling me just because I got my feelings hurt.”

Junior snorted. “Roman, I am  _ never _ going to stop coddling you when you get your feelings hurt.” He stood. “Now come on, it’s getting late.” When Roman didn’t move, he added, “Don’t make me scoop you.”

“I don’t need to be  _ scooped,” _ Roman protested, just in time for Junior to scoop him up anyway. He wriggled and squirmed, protesting until Junior set him down. He glared. “Bastard.”

“Do you need to grab anything from your place before we head out?”

“No, I’m good. Got my wallet, got my keys. Don’t really need anything else for being coddled.”

-/-

Across town, unknown to them, Tai was also lying awake. He stared up at the dark ceiling, trying to process all of this new information about Roman. It actually wasn’t that hard, now that he was thinking things through step by step, and even went a way to explaining some things about Roman that he’d always written off as his usual secrecy and games.

Fifteen, though. Tai steepled his hands over his face with a scowl. Emerald and Mercury were about that age- Emerald had turned fifteen a few weeks ago, Mercury would in November. He tried to imagine either of them pregnant, as parents, and shook the thought away. They were just  _ kids. _

But kids made mistakes- he chased the thought further, and tried to imagine Hazel kicking them out- no, he couldn’t imagine that. Hazel loved those kids too much. Anything that happened, for better or for worse, he would be right there with them

He couldn’t imagine any of his parent friends casting their child aside for a mistake of that- of any- magnitude. What parent would?

_ Roman’s parents, _ his mind supplied, and he rolled over to bury his face in his pillow. Because, of course, some parents would. Some parents were the very monsters parents were supposed to protect their children from. Hadn’t he been co-fostering with Qrow long enough to know that?

_ Fifteen, _ he thought, and added,  _ No wonder he gets so protective over the girls growing up. _

And the kids- Nora, at least, and usually if it was one it was all of them- had noticed his growing attraction. So he had a special smile just for Roman, huh? Well, that tracked. He had a special  _ feeling _ just for Roman. An ache, somewhere in his middle, and a voice in his heart urging him to hold, to protect, to shield.

In hindsight, it probably shouldn’t have taken him so long to realize his feelings. He rolled over again, flipping his top pillow over his head with a tired sigh. Good thing it was Saturday- well, Sunday, now- because he wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight, he suspected.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The thing that gets me about the cheese being tempted is that I'm not even sure they have real dairy cheese in the house which means that it's fake cheese and who the hell gets tempted by fake cheese?
> 
> If anyone can pronounce a (tm) with their mouth, it's Roman Goddamn Torchwick.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tai gets his shit together, but it might be too little too late. Meanwhile, the girls are growing up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to put this on last chapter, but shoutout to Ao3 User AmazonKat, who went back and shotgunned the whole series in two days and nailed down all but one detail of my plot twist back in the prologue. I frequently worry that I'm not doing a good enough job of foreshadowing but it looks like I don't need to worry about that after all.
> 
> This is the end of act 1!

-/-

Roman woke the next afternoon to the smell of pancakes. He still felt twisted up inside, but the intrinsic warmth of the Xong-Malachite home went some way toward soothing his turmoil. He dug a fresh suit out of the closet, leaving the jacket, tie, and sleeve garters on the bed for later, and, feeling slightly more alive and awake now that he wasn’t dressed down, shuffled off to the dining room for breakfast.

None of the family were present, but his usual seat at the table had a plate of pancakes kept warm under a glass cake dome. A note taped to the dome read,  _ Little Bear, Junior said you were sad and I should make you pancakes, so I did. Hope you like them, and feel better soon. Love you, Mallory. _

Roman rolled his eyes, but the card nonetheless found its way into his breast pocket before he started on his lunchtime breakfast.

He didn’t need to be  _ coddled- _ but he also wasn’t going to turn his nose up at free pancakes, either.

-/-

Tai woke- coincidentally, around the same time- to find the house quiet, but that wasn’t unusual for a Sunday afternoon. He shuffled sleepily into the kitchen to dig up some breakfast- he had finally managed to get to sleep at some point, but even then his rest had been fitful. He was still exhausted.

He was throwing together a turkey sandwich when Glynda arrived. She was taking Penny bra shopping today, because Penny had realized all of her classmates had bras now and she wanted one too. He let Glynda in and called up the stairs to Penny, who called back that she was still dressing and could Aunt Glynda please wait just a moment?

“I’ll even wait for two,” Glynda said. She looked Tai over when he went back to making sandwich, and gave him a knowing eyebrow. “You look like shit.”

“You’re the nicest friend I have,” he shot back. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Clearly. Is everything okay?”

Tai shrugged, and then shuffled uncomfortably, and said to his sandwich, “I went to talk to Roman last night.”

“Really? How did it go?”

“We were interrupted,” he admitted. “I… well, I found out some things about his past that, well, that changed the game a little bit.”

Glynda turned her gaze to the ceiling and pursed her lips, and after a thought said, “I can think of two things you might have found out that would have that much of an impact. Which one was it?”

Tai stared. “Uh. I think. Both of them? Unless there’s still more. I don’t… I don’t know how to… ask… wait, how do  _ you _ know?”

“I’ve known him as long as you have.”

“But why would he tell you? I mean… he doesn’t even like you…”

“And I don’t like him, but I’m also the only person on staff at the school who knows sign language.”

“...ah.”

“I take it you met Neo,” she said, seeing the comprehension in his eyes and giving him a reassuring smile. “Is she really that much of a gamechanger?”

“Dating a man with a child is very different than dating a bachelor.”

“True.” Her smile softened. “Then you do want to date him.”

“Yes. Among… other things. The more I think about it, the more I think, yes, that’s what I want.”

“Good. So when are you going to talk to him?”

“I don’t know. I think I still need to finish processing everything first.”

Whatever reply she might have made was interrupted by Penny coming downstairs, Ruby trailing behind her. As soon as Penny had chirped a greeting at Glynda, Ruby jumped in with, “Mrs. Glynda can I pleeeeeease come bra shopping with you and Penny? Please? Please? Pleeeeease?”

Tai sighed. “Ruby, what have I told you about inviting yourself places?”

“But I want a bra too!”

“Ruby, you’re TEN. And you don’t need one.”

“But all my friends have them! And I’m very nearly almost eleven!”

“You know,” Glynda cut in, before Tai could object again, “The point of a training bra is to get little girls used to wearing them  _ before _ they need them. Sort of like crib shoes for babies that can’t walk yet. I wouldn’t mind taking her- I don’t see any harm in it.”

“Well.” Tai sighed. “Yeah, all right. I guess it’s fine.”

Ten minutes later, Glynda left with Penny and Ruby, both to buy their first bras. Tai shoved the heels of his hands into his eyes, letting spots pop across the darkness for a beat before shaking himself. So his girls were getting older, so they were growing up. They were still his girls, Ruby was still his baby. Growing up didn’t change that.

Tai grabbed his sandwich and wandered into the living room to eat it. His mind, unbidden but not unexpected, drifted to Roman again. He’d have been only twenty five when his daughter was Ruby’s age- about the age they’d met, in fact. He tried to picture the young man he’d known at the time with a girl Ruby’s age.

The living room was occupied: James and Qrow were at opposite ends of the couch, Qrow on his phone with his feet in James’ lap, and Nora was upside down on the big recliner with her GameBuddy in her hand, lost to the world.

As he came in, he heard Qrow say, “Have you ever seen a man so beautiful you started crying?”

“I’ve seen you,” James said, but Qrow just reached his leg up to kick at his face.

“No! This isn’t the time to be fake-smooth. Look at this.”

He shoved his phone at James with this; James took it, moving Qrow’s foot out of the way as he did, and stared at the phone for a moment before making a hum of agreement. Tai rolled his eyes, forcing down the bitter twisting feeling that he was starting to get used to feeling every time he witnessed James and Qrow flirting, and took a seat to eat his sandwich.

“So who’s the pretty man you’re talking about?”

“Some rando on my Basebook feed,” Qrow said, taking his phone back from James and contorting his body in a way that could not possibly be comfortable so he could hold his phone out to Tai without losing taking his feet out of James’ lap or face. “Here, see for yourself.”

Tai was prepared for the usual ‘yep, that sure is a man right there’ reaction he felt when Qrow showed him pictures of pretty men, but this one was so pretty he found himself making a noise of assent at the selfie in question. He handed the phone back and said, “That is an extremely beautiful man.”

“See?” Qrow said. “Even straighties like Tai think so.”

“Can I see the pretty man?” Nora asked, finally looking up from her game. Qrow handed his phone to James, who passed it over to Nora, who nodded in agreement before passing it back down the chain and going back to her game. “Yeah, he’s good.”

“Told you.” Qrow preened, and added, “I’d say he’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, but I’ve seen Jimmy here, so…”

“Did you just try to woo me with the exact same line you kicked me for using?”

“Depends. Is it working?”

“...yes.”

“Then yes.” A beat, and, “Your turn.”

“I don’t know, you’re definitely top five, but this man is very pretty,” James said, and then failed to dodge when Qrow kicked him again, and then two fell into some light horseplay that had Nora sighing and rolling her eyes from her place on the recliner.

Something inside of Tai tightened, twisted around itself and cut him deep in his core. It  _ hurt, _ to see them so happy: not because he didn't want them to be happy, because he did, but because after a decade, being alone was eating him up inside.

He looked to his phone for a distraction and automatically pulled up his texts to Roman- their last conversation was yesterday, when Roman had sent him a selfie in his newest suit (white, red tie, red pocket square, and seeing it had made something unidentifiable in him  _ ping) _ and he found himself on his feet without quite meaning to.

“I’m going for a walk,” he said, to cover his motion, and grabbed his plate with his half-eaten sandwich to go.

“Pick up some shredded cheese on your way home,” Qrow said in parting, already going back to his phone now that he’d finished kicking James in the face. “For some reason we’re out…”

-/-

Roman put on the rest of his suit after cleaning up from breakfast, feeling much better than he had the night before. So what if Tai had turned out to not be the man he thought he was? It wasn’t like it mattered, and he was just wasting his energy pining for him anyway. In fact, this was a good thing! He was a good-looking, dashing man with an excellent dress sense and plenty to offer, why was he wasting his time pining for a straight man anyway?

“You look sick,” came a voice from behind him, and he turned to find Miltia in his doorway, exquisitely dressed in a filmy white t-shirt that fell nearly to her knees and white water slides- high fashion, even for lounging around the pool. He tossed an arm around her shoulder and steered her from the room.

“I am not sick, Little Dipper! In fact, I am the opposite! I have seen the light and I am moving forward from nothing but pain and rejection.”

“You still look like you’re going to throw up,” she persisted, linking her own arm around his waist and taking over the steering to guide him through the house and out the back door, where Melanie was lounging by the pool. “Come swim with me. Melanie’s too busy being lazy.”

“It’s a Sunday, I’m not going to apologize for lounging!”

“What’s your excuse the rest of the time?” he teased, and then sighed with Miltia turned the full force of her pout on him. “All right, all right, if you insist. I’ll go get my trunks and change out of the clothes I literally just finished putting on.”

She beamed delightedly at that, and any objection he might have still felt melted away. He rolled his eyes and turned to go back inside. He’d intended to go back home after breakfast, but his apartment would be empty and now, right now, that felt unbearable. He’d swim with his girls instead. That was a much better option.

-/-

Tai let his feet carry him where they would, at first down the street and then into the woods that stretched out behind their neighborhood. He followed winding paths and half-grown trails, wandering aimlessly until he found himself at the edge of a deep, narrow ditch. He could jump it easily, but he was getting tired, and hungry, and decided to sit at the edge of the ditch and feel sorry for himself.

The walk had cleared his head somewhat, though: he understood, now, what he wanted, and what he needed to do. He slipped his phone out and pulled up his texts with Roman.

_ Are you busy? We need to talk. _

It was a long time before he got an answer.

**I’m with the twins. What do you want?**

Terse. Tai shot back a reply.  _ I’d rather talk about this in person, if that’s okay. Can we meet somewhere later? _

**Release the Grounds at six. You can buy me a coffee.**

_ Sure, no problem. See you then. _

Six. That would give Tai a few hours to prepare, or more accurately agonize, over what he wanted to say- and to worry over what Roman might say in return. Tone was hard to convey through text, but Roman had sounded short, like something was bothering him.

Well, nothing to it but to find out why. Tai pulled himself from the edge of the ditch and began figuring out his path back to the house.

-/-

Tai got to Release the Grounds early, and got a seat out on the patio to wait. Roman was late- by a lot, and Tai’s smoothie was half-gone by the time he finally arrived. He was wearing his new suit. It looked better than in the selfies.

“What do you want?” he asked, once he’d slid into his seat, and Tai frowned.

“Are you mad at me?”

Roman said nothing, merely glowered, and Tai’s frown deepened.

“If I did something to upset you, you can tell me. I can’t make it right if I don’t know what I did.”

Roman carried on glowering, then reached over and took Tai’s smoothie, downing several gulps before slamming it back down with, “You  _ left. _ I gave you everything, shared the two parts of myself that it terrifies me to have known, and you fucking  _ walked out.” _

Tai stared. It had not occurred to him, in all of his own turmoil, that Roman might be hurt by his decision to leave.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “It was a lot, I- I needed to process.”

_ “You _ needed to process? I laid everything bare for you! I gave you a part of myself that I guard more tightly than the goddamn national treasure, and  _ you _ needed to process?”

“Yes! Because it recolored  _ everything _ I thought I knew about you!” Tai scrubbed his hands through his hair. “Roman, I’m  _ sorry, _ okay? I didn’t mean to hurt you. I wasn’t thinking about how you would feel when I left.”

“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

_ Of course not, _ Tai thought, and tried to say, but what he blurted out instead was, “I’m attracted to you.”

Roman stared.  _ “What?” _

“I… that’s what I came over for. Why I wanted to talk to you. I- I’m attracted to you. And I wanted to tell you, and then I found out… everything, and I panicked. I’m sorry.”

Roman carried on staring, searching Tai’s expression without a word, and then- faster than Tai would have imagined him capable of- he’d half launched over the table to grab the front of Tai’s t-shirt and yank him up, pull him half over the table so that their lips met in the middle.

The kiss pinged against something raw inside of Tai, something he hadn’t even known was there, and he deepened it- what had started as a clumsy mashing of lips shifted into something hungry and desperate; when Roman made to pull away, he chased after him, just for one last breath, and then the two froze, staring at each other across the few inches of space between them.

“You’re not lying,” Roman breathed. He sounded surprised.

“Did you think I was?”

“You’ve been lying to me a lot lately.”

“I… I didn’t know you’d noticed…”

“I’m a conman, Tai, I have to know how to tell when people are lying.”

“I’m sorry. I was trying to- to sort out how I felt before I told you. I didn’t want to hurt you if I was wrong.”

Again, Roman responded by closing the distance between them: if the first kiss brought clarity, the second brought longing. Tai’s fingers twitched, and curled inward; he wished his arms braced against the table weren’t the only things keeping the two of them from toppling to the ground and bringing the table down with them and part of him wondered if that would be such a bad thing, if it wouldn’t be a small price to pay for bringing Roman closer.

This time it was Tai who broke the kiss. “Let me take you out,” he said. “Let me- let me court you properly. Give me a chance to woo you. And make it up to you how I’ve been acting.”

Roman stared- incredulous this time- and then snorted, and then pushed Tai back to his seat and flopped back into his own, burying derisive snickers behind one hand.

“You want to  _ woo _ me?”

“Is that so ridiculous?”

“Hm.” Roman’s eyes swept over him, and then he smirked. “All right. I’ll give you a chance to- hm-  _ woo _ me. Wednesday. You can pick me up at my place at six.”

“Wednesday?”

“It’ll give you time to make plans. If you’re going to ~court~ me, you’re going to do it properly.”

And time to agonize over the fact that Roman was clearly still mad at him, but Tai decided to take his willingness to be courted as a good sign, and smiled. “All right. I’ll see what I can come up with.”

-/-

Neo was home by the time Roman got back to the apartment. She was at the kitchen counter working on homework, but when he came in, she grabbed a marker and whiteboard from nearby and scribbled on it before holding it up.

JUNIOR SAID YOU WERE SAD.

“I was sad, moose tracks.”

DO I NEED TO KICK SOMEONE?

“No, I’m not sad anymore. And I have a date Wednesday.”

WITH THAT GUY FROM LAST NIGHT?

“Yes. How was camping? I wasn’t expecting you back so soon.”

FISH WEREN’T BITING. TUK FELL IN THE RIVER.

Roman snorted. “And didn’t have a spare shirt to change into, I would imagine.”

Neo gave him a look that could only be described as “:3c”, and wrote, FOR SOME REASON HIS OVERNIGHT BAG WAS SITTING ON TOP OF THE CAR BACK AT THE LOT.

CAN’T IMAGINE WHO WOULD HAVE LEFT IT THERE.

Roman let out a startled bark of laughter. “That’s my girl.”

I’M GLAD YOU’RE NOT SAD ANYMORE, she wrote, and set her whiteboard aside to get back to her homework. After a second, she paused and signed, “You  _ aren’t _ sad anymore, right?”

“Of course not, my little chocochunk. I’ve got a date with the man of my dreams. Why would I be sad?”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two days after writing this chapter my nieces and nephews were over and my flat as a board ten-nearly-eleven year old niece was talking about how she has to wear a bra now when they go out, and inwardly I was just like "~nailed it~". (My older niece is gonna be thirteen this month, and she REPEATEDLY says things that echo things I've written for Yang. It's great.)
> 
> Neo's whiteboard method of communication is a reference to a scene from Chibi, where she held up a sign that said "this is how I talk" or something to that effect. The whiteboard being her preferred form of communication is my attempt to translate that joke into this setting.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bra shopping isn't as exciting as advertised it turns out. Meanwhile, James and Qrow have different ideas about lying to children.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that we've got the Tai and Roman plot tied up, let's peek in at what's going on with everyone else.

-/-

It turned out bra shopping wasn’t as exciting as Ruby was expecting.

Also, when the lady at the counter had measured her to see what size she needed, it had ended up being the smallest size they carried, and that had just been embarrassing. Now she was sitting on the bench outside the changing rooms while Penny tried on different options, and Glynda stood nearby with her arms folded loosely while they waited.

“Mrs. Glynda,” Ruby said suddenly, and Glynda turned to her. “If my Uncle Qrow marries Uncle James, what would that make us?”

“It wouldn’t make us anything.” She turned to Ruby and let her arms drop, folding them unconsciously behind her back as she did. “James is my brother, and Qrow is your uncle. The relationship would be too far removed to have a clear line of relation.”

Ruby’s face fell. “Oh. So you wouldn’t be my aunt, then?”

Glynda’s expression softened, and she took a seat beside Ruby. “Not in the sense that you mean, but I can still be your aunt in spirit, if that’s what you want.”

Immediately Ruby brightened. “Oh! But… what about Penny? She’s already your niece.”

“You’re smart enough to know that it’s possible to care about more than one person at a time.”

“Then will you be my aunt? Even if you’re only sorta related through my uncle’s beau?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Ruby beamed, and swung her feet cheerily on the bench- for once not disgruntled that her feet refused to reach the ground- and said, “I’ve never had an aunt before. I have a few second cousins through my mom that I call aunt, but I never see them. They live out of state and never call and only send me birthday cards. And they don’t even put money in them!”

“The greatest of sins.”

“I  _ mean, _ if they’re not going to have anything to do with me they could at  _ least _ send me a little cash once a year. They’re already sending me cards.”

“I suppose I can see how that must seem unfair to you.” When Ruby just looked rebellious, Glynda switched tracks and said, “Have you tried reaching out to them? Maybe they don’t realize you’d like to have a closer relationship with them.”

“Is that… allowed?”

“I don’t see why not. Why don’t you ask Tai? If they send you birthday cards, he must have some means of contacting them. He can help you get in touch with them.”

“Hmm.” She considered this while Penny came out, showing off her selections, and grinned. “Okay, I’ll do that! Hey Penny, Glynda said she’d be my aunt too!”

Penny lit up. “Oh! That is wonderful! That means we are more family than ever!”

-/-

Mercury and Emerald didn’t always come with Hazel when he came over on Sundays, but sometimes one or both of them would join him. They were also learning to bake, though for them it was more professionally oriented than Mother’s hobby learning, since they sometimes helped him in the shop, and of course Mercury and Winter were very close, so he sometimes came even if Emerald didn’t.

Weiss was pleased to see them pile out of Hazel’s jeep this week, though. She wanted to talk to Mercury, though she wasn’t entirely sure how, or even how to get him alone- they weren’t exactly bosom pals.

In the end, she just caught his attention as they were taking their shoes off in the foyer, with a highly cliche “Psst!” from behind him. He raised an eyebrow at her, halfway through untying his boots.

“...yes?”

“I want to talk to you,” she hissed, half an eye on Emerald and Hazel. “Privately. It’s personal.”

“I knew this was coming. You’re in love with me, aren’t you?”

“Ew.”

“Ouch.”

She ignored this. “Please?”

An eyeroll. “Yeah, all right.” He raised his voice and said to Emerald, “Kid wants to hang out, you guys have fun baking.”

“You’re going soft,” Emerald said, following Hazel back to the kitchen to the tune of Mercury flipping her off. He turned back to Weiss after they were gone and it was now just the two of them.

“Well? I’m listening.”

“I have something to ask you, and I’m not sure if asking is going to offend you, but I  _ have _ to ask, so- so I’m sorry in advance if it upsets you.” She paced a moment to calm her nerves, while Mercury raised an expectant eyebrow at her, and then finally rounded on him and said, “I want to know how and when you knew you’re a boy. Um, please.”

There was a pause, and then Mercury let out a bark of laughter. “You’re kidding.”

“Look, I just-”

“If you’d asked me to predict which one of you runts was gonna start questioning your gender first, you would have been my last guess.”

“I. What?”

“That’s why you’re  _ asking, _ right?”

“Well… yes.”

“Hrm.” He laughed again, then sobered a d scrubbed a hand through his hair to steady himself. She waited expectantly; it was awhile before he started talking.

“It was the day I got my first period. It was- and I am not being hyperbolic about this- the  _ worst _ day of my life.”

Weiss frowned, eyes flickering involuntarily to his feet- painted over with blackest-black, swirls of regular black paint creating a slightly dizzying pattern of spirals that it was hard to look directly at- and Mercury snapped his fingers to draw her gaze back up.

“Perspective, it’s about perspective. Pay attention.”

“Sorry.”

“After that, my foster mom at the time sat me down and told me everything that was happening inside of me, going on about how I was ~becoming a woman~ or some bullshit like that- in the most patronizingly godawful voice you can imagine- and it was like- it was like-” He huffed, searching for the right words, and then curled a hand over his sternum. “-it was like there was something inside of me, something I had never known about, and she was ripping it away before I even had a chance to find it. I’d never had a gender before. Suddenly I did, and I didn’t want it.”

Weiss frowned, brow furrowing in thought while she considered this against her other sources, but Mercury only gave her a few seconds before he continued.

“Anyway, I figured I wasn’t the first person to want to put a stop to this nonsense, so I got online and poked around to see if there was a way to make my insides get off their bullshit. Ended up on a forum for transmasc folk talking about their experiences with hormones and transition and… yeah. Lotta things clicked into place after that. So I chopped off all my hair, found a way to flatten my tits, picked a name and… well, you know the rest.”

All this said, he fell silent, letting her take it all in in her own time. After awhile, she decided how to frame her concerns.

“So… how do you know you’re really a boy, and not just responding to societal pressures of what a girl is supposed to do and be? How do you know you’re not just… you know, rebelling against expectations?”

“Does it matter?”

“What?”

“I said, does it matter?” Mercury curled his hand over that place on his sternum again. “It’s in here. There’s this itch under my skin, and for the longest time I never noticed it. And then my foster mom handed me a gender, and it was  _ all _ I could notice. Dressing like this- looking like this, when customers call me young man or Neon calls me stupid boy, just the act of  _ being Mercury, _ that makes this place under my skin calm down, it feels right. Does it matter  _ why? _ Would it change how I feel, if that was what I was responding to?”

“I… I guess I never thought of it like that.” Weiss sighed, and wished she had the nerve to scrub at and muss up her hair the way Mercury did.

“So what’s brought this on?” Mercury asked, when it didn’t seem like she was going to say more. “I was pretty sure that chunky blond kid was gonna be the one to start questioning his gender first, out of all of you and your friends.”

“Jaune?”

“Sure.”

“Um. It’s stupid…”

“Yeah…?” He scoffed. “You’re  _ twelve. _ Of course it’s stupid.”

“I’m thirteen in eight months!”

He said nothing, merely looked expectant. She sighed.

“I was starting a new game in Pokemon Adamantium.”

“Uh huh.”

“And Professor Lepidodendron asked me if me to input my gender.”

“Uh huh.”

“...and that’s it. I froze, because I didn’t know what was the right answer.”

“Oh. Huh. You’re right, that is stupid.”

She glared a few daggers at him at that, and then folded her arms and turned her nose up with a “Hmph!” He snorted.

“You could come to my group, if you want.”

“What group?”

“The Argus Area Teen Trans Society. At-ats. It’s for trans, nonbinary, and gender-questioning kids in the area. Penny drags me to it every month and I bet you’d benefit from having other questioning kids to talk to.”

“When is it?”

“First weekend of the month. Penny’ll set you up, I literally couldn’t care less.”

Weiss smirked. “I think you do care.”

“Literally do not, but think what you want.” He turned to head toward the kitchen with a wave, leaving her in the foyer with her thoughts.

-/-

Qrow didn’t like having student teachers. He’d signed up to teach ten year olds, not adults. If he’d wanted to teach adults, he’d have taught at the college like Tai. Ten year olds were way easier.

Still, it was part of the job, and to be honest he liked Clover. The guy was kind of a cheeseball, admittedly, but he reminded Qrow a little of James- all earnest and eager to help, albeit without James’ warmth and passion.

Or sense of initiative. Qrow sighed as he looked over the lesson plan he’d had Clover put together for English. It was the most by the book lesson plan he’d ever seen, and he’d worked with Glynda for nearly a decade now. Even Glynda knew how to deviate based on her kids’ learning styles. Usually.

“I guess that’s what he’s here to learn,” Qrow reminded himself as he made a note in the margins, prompting a questioning hum from James across the desk as he did. He clarified, “Clover. He always been so rigid?”

“Both of his parents are ex-military,” James said. “I suppose he must be used to following the rules very closely.”

“Well he needs to learn to shake things up. Especially if he wants to teach ten-year-olds. Ten-year-olds don’t respond well to rigid. And they can sense weakness.”

“They’re not sharks, Qrow.”

“I know, sharks are chill as hell. Ten-year-olds are the opposite of that. They’re like five-year-olds, except they can tell when you’re bullshitting them.”

“You shouldn’t be lying to children. Five or ten year olds.”

Qrow raised an eyebrow. “You are never gonna make it as a Kindergarten teacher if you’re not willing to bullshit your kids just a little bit.”

“Hrm. Children are smart enough to understand things if you’re willing to get on their level to explain them. There’s no reason to lie to them.”

“What?” Qrow looked baffled. “What are you talking about? I’m not suggesting lying to kids about shit like science and history, I mean stuff like telling them that those foam balls they put on powerlines to warn away helicopters are planets that got stuck when our orbit moved too close. You can’t tell ten-year-olds that, they’ll never believe you.”

“Wh… why would you tell that to a child? To any child?”

“Because it’s funny…?”

James opened his mouth to respond, closed it, and then leaned forward to steeple his hands in front of his face. He took a deep breath, and then sighed and let his hands fall.

“I don’t like lying to children.”

Qrow’s expression softened. “I know. Kids could use more adults like you in their lives.” He returned to the lesson plan he was looking over, and added, “Still funny, though.”

-/-

Glynda got Penny and Ruby home about the time James was taking supper off of the stove- spaghetti and meatballs, if anyone’s interested- and he had about a three second warning to move away from the stove before both came running in and slammed into him. He planted his right foot and caught both of them, steering them further away from the stove in the process, and looked up to see Glynda following them into the kitchen at a more dignified pace.

“Your timing couldn’t be better,” he said. “Staying for dinner?”

“Hmm, it smells good.” She gave the bowl of meatballs on the counter a hungry eye. “...yes.”

“Uncle James!” He looked down to Ruby tugging on his sleeve. “Bra shopping is  _ really boring _ it turns out.”

“Is it? But you were so excited about the chance to go.”

“I was! And I’m happy with the end result! But it’s still boring.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine.” She clambered up onto one of the high stools at the counter so she could talk to him while he finished getting supper ready. “Anyway, Glynda told me about how properly made corsets give better support for the bust without hurting the back as much, which is really cool, so I think when I’m older and have something to put in it I might try corsetry instead. I always thought corsets were bad but it sounds like they’re really cool! Did you know any of that?”

James glanced at Glynda, and shook his head. “I didn’t, no. There’s a gap in my knowledge of undergarments where corsetry is concerned.” Glynda snorted derisively at that; James shot her a glare that verged on a pout, and added to the girls, “Why don’t you two go hunt everyone else down and tell them supper’s nearly ready?”

They chirped tandem ‘Okay!’s, and thundered off to hunt everyone else down. Glynda gave him an amused look.

“Ruby asked me to be her aunt today.”

“Weren’t you already?”

“In spirit, I suppose. We decided to make it official. She wanted to know what I would be to her if you and Qrow got married.”

“Ah.” He snapped his jaw shut, and covered this by turning to take the plates out of the cabinet. Glynda caught it anyway- she always did.

“James?”

“About that,” he said, handing her the plates and taking the bowl of meatballs over to the table. He glanced at both of the kitchen doors, just to check, and dropped his voice to say, “I uh. Bought a ring last week.”

It had never been particularly easy for James to read his sister, but there was no mistaking the look that passed across her face before she settled it into a carefully neutral smile. His face fell.

“You disapprove.”

“No, of course not!” she said hurriedly. “I’m happy for you, I am. I’m just- are you sure this is something Qrow is ready for? I don't want you to be... disappointed.”

“Honestly? No. It’s been awhile since we talked about it and, you’re right, the last consensus was that we weren’t ready. But… feelings change.” He shrugged, unsure of how to explain beyond that. “Anyway, Tai was supposed to be testing the waters for me, trying to get a feel for where he stands now, but he’s been a little distracted this weekend, so I don’t think he’s had a chance yet.”

Glynda pursed her lips at that, and James wondered if she was about to object, but whatever she was planning to say was lost by the outside door flying open and the rest of the family coming in. They’d been out in the backyard digging what would, hopefully, be a vegetable garden- or anyway, Tai, Yang, and Nora had. Last time James stuck his head out, they were working while Qrow sat in the shade with a lemonade and watched them.

There were a few minutes of racket as everyone got cleaned up and settled into their places, and somewhere in all the chaos Qrow tugged him into the dining room and into a brief kiss. James pulled away when they’d parted and gave Qrow a bemused look.

“What was that for?”

“Because you look  _ extremely _ kissable in that apron.” His face split in a toothy grin and he pushed James back to the door. “And anyway, do I  _ need _ a reason to want to kiss my man?”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The joke is that Jaune is a character I refuse to headcanon as anything other than cis, because reasons.
> 
> It's gonna be a coin-toss on whether I actually remember about the At-Ats meetup in time in the plot but I hope I do.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Qrow explains some facts to Clover, and then vehicle trouble gets Hazel and the kids an excuse to visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of y'all will recall me talking about this on the blog, but this chapter is the one where I started to actually enjoy _writing_ Clover as opposed to just bullying him.

-/-

On Mondays, the kids did art last period. Qrow wiped down his whiteboard, watching Clover attempting to clean up glitter in his periphery.

“I can see why you leave art until the end of the day now,” Clover said, running the lightweight, battery-powered, completely useless in any situation where there was actual debris to pick up vacuum cleaner over and over the glitter that had escaped into the carpet during art.

(It was impossible to say how this had happened. They’d been working with felt today, where had the glitter even come from?)

“Art is one of those subjects that it’s good to have at the end of the day- the kids are getting restless, they’ve got a lot of pent up energy, it’s harder for them to pay attention and take notes, so I let ‘em burn off some of that energy through creation.” He dropped his rag into the bucket and moved over to very gently take the vacuum from Clover’s hands, returning it to its cabinet as a lost cause. “It’s the same reason we do science last period on alternating days- cause I teach science hands on, and that’s easier on them than being stuck in a desk for that last hour.”

“You’ve given a lot of thought to this.” Clover glanced around for something else to clean; Qrow passed him the broom and dustpan and grabbed his rag to start wiping down desks. “When to teach different subjects, I mean.”

“Yeah.” Qrow shrugged. “Sometimes I have to shake things up based on the kids, but after awhile you get a feel for what time of day is the best time to talk about different subjects. Like History- history is mostly just me talking about stuff that happened, so it doesn’t ask much of the kids, which is why it’s a first period class. What kid wants to do anything more complicated than that that early in the morning?”

“Yes, history.” Clover looked away and rubbed the back of his neck. “About that…”

“Yeah?”

“Is it really a good idea to… well, the things you tell the kids. Are you sure they’re old enough to hear some of it?”

“Nine and ten? Sure they’re old enough. Why wouldn’t they be?”

“I just don’t know if nine and ten is old enough to really understand… you know, that kind of material.”

Qrow raised an eyebrow at him, then turned to look him dead on, all jovial playfulness gone from his demeanor. “Clover, the world is a shitty, shitty place, and the things I’m telling these kids? For a lot of them, it’s nothing new. It’s stuff they’ve had to live with their whole life. For others, it’s stuff they’re gonna learn soon enough, from experience- the ones that won’t? They’re the ones that need to hear it the most, because it could be the difference between whether or not they have compassion for their peers.”

“It just seems like you’re scaring them for no reason. And teaching them that the governing forces in their life don’t care about them? It just… I guess it seems like you’re radicalizing them a bit.”

“Someone’s gotta,” Qrow muttered, and reconsidered. He did some quick math in his head. “How well do you remember what the world was like when you were their age? Woulda been about ten or eleven years ago, right?”

“I remember the pandemic, and the protests.” He grimaced. “And the murder hornets… and yes, I know what point you’re trying to make, and I do understand the nuance around those things. But the world is different now. Things got better after that.”

“They did,” Qrow agreed, nodded. “Not perfect, but we’ve made progress. Now, what do you know about the world ten years before  _ that? _ What was going on in the world around the time you were born?”

“I know there was a war on.”

“Yeah, Jim said your parents are both military?”

“All,” he corrected. “Mom died, and Dad remarried. My stepdad was also military.”

“Right. So you knew about the war, probably learned details from your folks, and you understood that it had an impact on your family, definitely by the time you were in fifth grade. Right?”

“Yes, of course. Dad couldn’t exactly not talk about the war, not when his and dad’s service overlapped with my childhood, and Mom was k-i-a.”

“Right. And the stuff I teach the kids- the ugly parts of history, the genocide and slavery and exploitation and all of those horrible things baked into humanity, that has an impact on them, and  _ someone _ has to bother telling them.” He shrugged. “It’s not really that different.”

“There are nice things in history, too.”

“There are. And we’ll get to those, too. But I gotta go ahead and get this stuff in their heads before the school board shortens my leash again.” He grimaced. “They tend to agree with you about whether it’s appropriate to teach ten year olds the truth about the pretty lies they’ve been told about this country’s origins.”

Clover frowned as though he disagreed, but he seemed not to want to push the subject further, and returned to sweeping. Qrow shook his head with a sigh. Maybe it wasn’t fair to have to tell the kids at such a young age that the world was unfair and that a small number of people held the power to ruin their lives just for existing- but then, it wasn’t fair that those things were true in the first place, and someone had to tell them. Someone had to prepare them for what was coming later.

“You’re coming around for dinner tonight, right?”

But for now, a subject change was in order. He had the whole school year to make Clover understand, there was no need to push too much right away.

“You keep feeding me,” Clover said, turning a confused look on Qrow as they put away the cleaning supplies for the day.

Qrow moved to the sink in the back of the room to dump and clean out his bucket, tossing a grin at Clover over his shoulder.

“Never knew a college student who didn’t jump at the chance for free food. Are you complaining?”

“No, I’m just confused. I don’t understand why.” When Qrow just shrugged, he tried again, a little more forcefully this time when he said, “It’s just that I’ve always gotten the impression that you don’t like me very much.”

“What?” Qrow turned an incredulous look on him, splashing water everywhere as he did. “Why would you think I didn’t?”

“You’ve threatened my life no less than seven times since we met.”

“What’s your point?”

“Qrow please…”

Qrow looked deliberately baffled, and then took pity on Clover and sighed. “I like you just fine. I wouldn’t keep letting you follow me home if I didn’t.”

“Oh. Well that’s reassuring to hear.”

They left after that, Clover quiet behind him while they headed to the library to collect Ruby- since she had no friends among this year’s crop of fifth graders, she tended to hang out with her classmates after school rather than Qrow’s classroom, and then walk down to the library once they had all been picked up.

She wasn’t hard to find; she’d shoved three ottomans together in the reading center and was sprawled across them, completely buried in whatever she was reading, headphones blasting… definitely too loud for a library, or for sensitive very-nearly-almost-eleven year old ears.

(She also wasn’t supposed to have them at school, but given that she was left to her own devices for a good half hour after school ended, he’d agreed to let her bring them as long as they stayed in her bag during the school day. So far, there’d been no problems, or at least if there had, her teachers hadn’t felt the need to let him know.)

He tapped her shoulder to get her attention and then waited the three or four seconds it took for her to flop dramatically over the interruption before turning her headphones off and sitting up.

“Time to go? Hi, Mr. Clover.” She shoved book and headphone into her bag and hopped up to join them as they headed out.

“Hey, Ruby. What’re you reading?”

“The Man With Two Souls. It’s about a man with two souls.”

Behind her, Qrow snorted and muttered, “There are two souls inside of you. One is gay. The other one is also gay. You are gay.”

Ruby and Clover both turned to give him baffled looks. “What?”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, it’s just an old dumb joke. What’s your book about?”

“I told you, it’s about a man who has two souls.” She added, as an aside to Clover, “I did say that, right?”

“You certainly did. I heard you.”

“All right, all right!” They’d reached the truck; Qrow shooed Clover away to his own car and hopped in, leaning over to open the passenger door for Ruby (the lock had broken right after they got it back from the shop, because of course it did). Once she was in, and belted up, he turned the ignition, and-

-nothing happened. Apart from a strained grinding from the engine, that is. Qrow reset the ignition, gave the truck a minute, and tried again.

Still nothing. Qrow made a disgruntled noise and smacked the steering wheel, carefully not swearing since Ruby collected swear words like other children collected pogs.

“Come on, baby, I  _ just _ got you back,” he muttered instead, trying once more, only to have the engine make an  _ extremely _ worrying groan that had Qrow hurriedly resetting the ignition and pulling the key out entirely. “Okay. We’ll not be doing that anymore.”

“Uncle Qrow?” Ruby looked worried; Qrow gave her a reassuring smile.

“Looks like you’ve got a little more time to read while I get this sorted out.”

He got out, relieved to see that Clover had pulled over beside them when he realized the truck wasn’t starting.

“You know anything about engines?”

“Polendina scholarships are based on aptitude in mechanics and engineering,” Clover reminded him, while Qrow smacked the hood in three or four places, popping it open. Clover stared. Qrow shrugged.

“What? The clamps are loose and since the lever in the cab broke off it’s the only way to get the hood open.”

Clover balked, and turned to the engine in sheer self defense- and then resumed his stare at Qrow.

“How… old is this truck…?”

“Older than you, so show some respect for your elders,” Qrow snapped. He then muttered, “Actually, I think it might be older than me, too.”

“What’s holding the engine together…?”

“Prayer, mostly.” Qrow reached over to the oil cap and screwed it off, checking the oil level in an automatic sort of way. They’d changed it while it was in the shop, so it wasn’t really necessary, but it was all he knew how to do. Clover shuddered.

“It looks like the immediate issue is the battery. I can try to jump you off to get you home, but I think your truck has had it. You uh… might want to consider replacing it.”

“Fuck you, I’ve had this truck since high school.”

“That would explain why it’s in the condition it’s in.” When Qrow just carried on glaring at him, he sighed and moved over to his car. “I’ll get the cables. It was just a suggestion.”

While Clover dug his jumper cables out and hooked them up, Qrow folded his arms and leaned back on the side of his truck, a pout threatening the edges of his expression. After a moment or two of this, he dropped one hand and gave the truck a reassuring pat. James knew about engines, and so did Hazel. He’d get a second opinion from one of them.

-/-

“Your truck has had it,” James said, about an hour later. The minute he’d gotten home Qrow had come out and dragged him over to give him a second opinion, and James had spent a good fifteen minutes going over the engine before pronouncing his death sentence. He dropped the hood back into place. “I’m sorry, Qrow, but fixing it would cost more than replacing it, and it would still give out again in the near future even so.”

Qrow folded his arms and glowered. “That’s it, I’m calling Hazel. That guy builds engines for a hobby, he’ll know what he’s talking about.”

“He’s going to say the same thing I just did.” When Qrow still looked mutinous, he sighed and turned to head back into the house. “Fine, I’ll go take some hot dogs out of the freezer. Looks like we’re having company for dinner tonight.” And added, to Clover, “Are you staying? There’s always room for one more.”

“Qrow already invited me, actually.” The pair turned to head inside, conversation trailing behind them. “Though if you’re having other guests over…”

“Hazel and the kids are family-”

While James was looking over the engine, Yang had been leaned over it, watching him carefully, asking questions and trying to understand what he was doing. Once he and Clover had disappeared into the house- and Qrow had finished explaining to Hazel that his truck was on blocks again and he needed “someone with a brain” to come take a look at it- she moved over to stand beside her pouting uncle.

“Is everything okay?”

“I’ve had that truck since just out of high school,” he huffed. “Worked my ass off for anyone who’d pay me to be able to afford it, and I’ve kept it running for twenty years. So  _ why _ is it picking  _ now _ to give out on me?”

“Because you’ve been using it for twenty years, and it was at least that old when you got it?” Yang guessed. 

“All right, smartass. What did I tell you about being sensible?”

“Not when you’re looking?”

“Exactly. Watch your hands-” He dropped the hood back down and checked the time. “Well, nothing to it now but to wait for Hazel to get here so he can tell me what I need to fix my truck.”

-/-

“Your truck has had it,” Hazel said an hour later.

“Oh, come on!”

Hazel ignored the grumbling and pacing from behind him and returned his attention to the engine, looking for anything salvageable or some kind of silver lining.

He was surrounded by about half a dozen children while he did this- Yang and Emerald had enough genuine interest that they were naturally going to watch him work, and the other children had gravitated there when they realized something interesting was going on. Only Mercury had left, wandering off as soon as they got there, mumbling something about ‘going to bother the General’ before disappearing inside with a backwards glance at Qrow that Qrow missed but Hazel didn’t.

“The battery itself is in pretty good shape,” Hazel suggested. “You could definitely reuse it, if you happen to get a replacement with a bad battery that happens to take the same size. Some of the other parts could probably be cannibalized for other vehicles. But the truck has had it.”

On one side of the engine, Nora pulled herself up to hang off the edge of the truck so she could see better; Hazel reached up unconsciously to hold the hood up, just in case the rod came loose. Nora asked, “If the parts are still good, why can’t the truck just get fixed?”

“Only  _ some _ of the parts are still good, because by the looks of things they’re replacements added more recently. But more of the parts are old and worn out, and replacing every single piece would be more expensive than getting a new car entirely, and take ages besides. Getting a replacement is the more practical option on every level.”

Across the truck, beside Emerald, Ruby nodded in solemn agreement, as if Hazel had just imparted great wisdom acquired through years of meditation instead of just practical advice about car maintenance.

(Behind them all, Qrow paced up and down the driveway, muttering to himself.)

“The passenger door handle doesn’t work either,” Yang added. “Or the air conditioner.”

“Or the radio,” Nora added. “And the rearview mirror keeps falling off.”

“And the clock resets itself every time you crank up,” Yang continued.

“There’s a hole in the bed underneath the toolbox.”

“We had to replace the bearings last year because it made a thunkthunkthunk noise and was about to fall off.”

“Hey, it still drives just fine!” Qrow snapped, interrupting what was sure to be a detailed explanation of everything wrong with his truck. “Or it did. Are you  _ sure _ it can’t be fixed?”

Hazel shook his head, and gestured for the children to move so he could put the hood back down. “The parts alone would cost thousands, not to mention the cost of labor.” Taking a guess at where Qrow’s frustrations were coming from, he added, “I know people who sell vehicles. I can help you find an affordable replacement. It’d be used, but…” He glanced at the truck, and winced. “...less used.”

Qrow ‘hrmph’ed, folding his arms and kicking irritably at a loose stone in the driveway. Hazel sighed. He should have charged a consultation fee.

-/-

“So who’s the pretty-boy in the kitchen with Tai?” Mercury asked, tapping on James’ workroom door but not bothering to wait for an answer before wandering in and plunking onto the couch that took up most of one wall.

“That would be Clover. He’s Qrow’s new student teacher.”

“Oh, yeah, Penny told me about him. He looks like the kind of guy who still owns and wears his high school letter jacket.”

“Your insults are getting more personally tailored.”

“I do my best.”

He went for his phone after that, so James returned to his work, content that if Mercury wanted the conversation pointed in any specific direction he’d let him know. After a few minutes, Mercury seemed to get bored with whatever was on his phone and looked over at what James was doing, tilting his head almost on its side to read the title on the textbook beside his elbow, then returning to his phone.

A few minutes later, he set his phone down again and stood up to pace, a few steps forward, turn, a few steps back. Repeat, and then he flopped down onto the couch, checked his phone again, and then rolled over onto his front with a huff. James suppressed an amused smile.

“Yes?”

“Neon wants me to partner with her in a competition she has coming up,” he said quickly, and sat up. “She normally competes singles but she wants a doubles trophy and says I’m the only person she knows who can keep up with her in the rink.”

“That sounds like fun. Do you want to do it?”

“I dunno. Kinda? Neon’s a bitch, but… I dunno, I like skating with her.” And muttered, a furious blush coloring his cheeks, “I like her moves.”

“I see.” James linked his hands in front of his face, as much in thought as to hide the smile tugging at his lips. “So what’s stopping you?”

Mercury shrugged. “We’d have to meet and practice together a lot. I’ve got a lot on my plate.”

James nodded, ticking off on his fingers. “Guitar lessons, capoeira lessons, working in the shop, volunteering at the library, not to mention school and homework, which I assume you’re being studious about-” A knowing eyebrow, which Mercury returned with one of his own. James nodded. “Yes, you do seem to have a full schedule. If you added something else to it, like practicing for a doubles skating competition, you might have to sacrifice something you’re already doing.”

“I pick school,” Mercury said instantly, getting a stern look from James. He rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, I know. Anyway Hazel won’t let me drop out till I’m sixteen, and only if I can make a good enough case for why dropping out will improve my future in some way. Assuming I’m still there at the time,” he added automatically, but James ignored that. It tended to be said automatically where Mercury’s future was concerned, but the dread had long gone out of it and it seemed more of a ‘knock on wood’ thing than a genuine fear at the forefront of his thoughts.

“When is the competition?”

“November. Whatever I interrupted, I’d be interrupting it for two months.”

“I think you should do it,” James said. “It sounds like you want to, and I think it would be good for you.”

Mercury frowned. “How so? Because it’ll mean a chance for social interaction or some bullshit like that?”

“Well, yes, not to mention that healthy competition can be exciting and allow you to discover new sides of yourself, but more importantly than all of that, it’s something you _want_ to do, and I think you should try things you want to do. But only do it if you’re willing to go the full time. You’d be making a commitment to Neon, and if you dropped out she’d have to find a new partner on short notice. That wouldn’t be fair to her.”

“Yeah, because I would haaaate to be unfair to her.” At James’ stern look, he rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, General." He squirmed a little then, and, "Do… d’you think that we’d have a chance at winning?”

“Now that I can’t say without having seen you skate together. But I think you’ll do fine.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rip Qrow's truck.
> 
> Hey guys! I keep meaning to drop this here, but I recently started a roleplay blog for James (and pretty much the rest of the cast too honestly)! It's au only and right now it's pretty much just a DuckTales au with Directium, but it's a lot of fun and if you like the way I write the characters you might enjoy checking it out! If you're interested, you can find us on tumblr @hardheadedbighearted.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tai and Qrow play catchup, and Roman has an encounter at the bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Struggling with the last leg of the next chapter, so gonna see if posting will unstick me a bit. Enjoy!

-/-

Clover had gone. Hazel and the kids had gone. The girls were in the kitchen, cleaning up from dinner. James had gotten a call from Lanying and gone to take it; it was just Qrow and Tai now, watching cartoons while Qrow pouted about having to replace his truck- only Tai had been truly sympathetic; he’d seen how hard Qrow had worked both to afford his truck and to keep it running all these years.

“Part of me wants to see if one of Junior’s boys can do anything with it,” Qrow said. “I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s got a whole fleet of mechanics on his payroll.”

“But…”

“I can’t be sure of where those parts would come from. I’m willing to look the other way on stuff they get up to but I don’t want to get involved, even for something as small as this.”

“You got a good run out of your truck,” Tai reminded him. “Twenty years was longer than anyone expected, and that’s including the year you lived out of it. I get why you’re reluctant to give it up, but it really is for the best. And you don’t have to get something ancient and cheap this time.”

“Cheap,” Qrow echoed, and laughed bitterly. “At least I don’t have to worry about the effect this’ll have on our budget. Small favors. As it is I’ll probably have to lay down the law to stop Jim from just buying me a new vehicle anyway.”

“Would he try to push…?”

Stupid question. Of course he would. James had never quite understood why Tai and Qrow’s pride was so rankled by how much more he contributed to their family financially. He was just trying to do his part and provide for his family, and since he  _ could _ provide more, it made perfect sense for him to. The way he saw it, splitting their finances three ways equally would be unforgivable. Tai could understand that, of course, and it was true: it wouldn’t be fair if the guy whose bank account could swallow theirs whole and rattle them around only put in the same amount.

But it rankled, for both of them: they weren’t exactly broke, but two teachers, one of them still working on his PhD, had not had a lot of the ready, especially with two permanent children and usually a third. The money they got from child services for their foster work helped a little, but the money wasn’t much, and generally went into taking care of the kids’ needs- that was what it was for, after all.

It was hard to see how much James could offer and not feel inadequate when comparing their own meager offerings.

And James, who seemed to think it was his job to take care of everyone, could not understand that, as much as he tried to respect the boundaries they put up where finances were concerned. He wouldn’t push- but he’d offer more than once, just to make sure, and that would be enough to have Qrow, already in a Mood, snappy and irritable at least until he was able to sign for a new vehicle.

And they both knew it, so Tai decided to change the subject with, “So I’ve got a date Wednesday.”

Qrow raised an eyebrow at him. “Really?”

“What?”

“S’just that you don’t normally go on dates unless Kali strongarms you into it.”

“I’m not usually interested in dating unless Kali strongarms me into it.”

“Ahhh, so you’re actually  _ interested _ in someone? Who is it?”

“They’re, um, someone up at the school,” Tai said quickly. “Look, I don’t wanna talk about it, okay? It’s kind of, you know, scary new ground. I’d prefer to see where this goes before I bring my family into the equation.”

“Hmm. It’s not Whitney, is it?”

“No, of course not. And uh, thanks for getting the kids to let up. I appreciate it.”

Qrow shrugged. “No big deal. Just cause the kids got lucky with me and Jimmy doesn’t mean they should go around meddling with people’s love lives. Especially given how much of their meddling involved ignoring that Jim wasn’t ready to date again at the time, or how long it took to get them to stop shoving us toward the altar.”

Oh, right, Tai had promised to ask about that, hadn’t? Well, here was a good opening. “Are you guys still definitely in the ‘not ready’ camp? Roman said you told him you were planning to spend the rest of your life with James. Is marriage on the table now?”

Qrow squinted at him, then pulled bony knees up so he was staring down at his feet when he shrugged. “I dunno. I wasn’t thinking marriage when I said that, it’s just how I feel. I don’t wanna be with anyone else, I don’t want Jim to be with anyone else. I’m his long as he wants me. If that means we get married at some point, I dunno. It doesn’t have to. What would change if we did?”

“Apart from the fact that James will probably burst the first time Nora calls him ‘Father’, I can’t think of anything that would have to change. But marriage is still important to some people- I was just wondering if you felt differently than before, that’s all.”

This got him another shrug, and Qrow shifted his attention to picking idly at one of his toenails rather than respond.

(They were long, and thick, and hard enough to cut diamond, and James clipped them for him about once a week, which was, as far as Tai was concerned, the greatest expression of love available.)

“I dunno,” he finally said. “The last time we talked about it was right before Guiles passed, and it hasn’t really come up since then. So I dunno.”

Tai nodded, and changed the subject again, and filed that away. It wasn’t clear, true, but it was a definite change from the hard no he’d gotten back at the start of the year.

-/-

By the time Qrow had put the girls to bed and headed down to his and James’ room, James was sitting up in bed reading on his tablet, reading glasses making him about twenty percent prettier than usual.

“You disgust me,” Qrow said, and started shedding his clothes as he moved across the room, down to his briefs just in time to flop onto his side of the bed. “What’s this week’s guilty secret?”

“Billionaire’s Bridegroom,” James said, while Qrow reached up to slip his glasses off.

“There, that’s better. What’s it about?”

“Fake relationship story. A man has to get married within the year to inherit his grandfather’s fortune, so he arranges to marry his best friend, only for their fake relationship to dig up feelings they both thought they’d gotten over in the past.”

Qrow’s face split into a toothy grin. “Ohhh, and let me guess- there was only one bed?”

“There were plenty of beds, they lived in a mansion.” He added, with a knowing grin of his own, “But once his grandfather’s ward moved in and tried to prove their relationship was fake, they had to share a bed to sell the charade.”

“And woke up cuddling with their dicks touching and panicked over it?”

“Have you read this book before?”

Qrow chuckled. “No, I just know how those stories go.” He rolled onto his back and stretched, and added, “Clover invited us all to go fishing with him this weekend. Says he has access to a boat that belongs to a friend of his dad’s, and wants to make up for all the times we’ve fed him.”

“You do let him follow you home a lot.”

“What can I say, I remember being in college and how having someone willing to feed me three or four meals a week made things a lot better. Besides, I like the kid.”

It was James’ turn to laugh. “You and everyone else. There’s something about Clover that makes people want to give him a leg up. Unfortunately, that means he also has a habit of coasting. I’m glad he’s going into teaching. Coasting in robotics isn’t safe.”

“Not that safe in teaching, either,” Qrow reminded him. “Kids will eat you alive if you try coasting with them. Still.” He set about plumping up his pillows and shuffling the covers around to make a cosy nest while he spoke. “If he needs someone to make sure he doesn’t coast, so be it. I’m happy enough to push him.”

He’d gotten his little nest sorted out and now he curled up into it; James set his long-ignored tablet onto his nightstand with his glasses, and lay on his side as well so they were facing each other.

“So fishing this weekend?” Qrow asked, once they were settled. “The river is up in Atlas, so we’d have to make a whole day of it.”

“Sounds fun. And we can stop by Mother’s on our way.”

“Yeah? Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. She’s decided to sell the house and move somewhere smaller, and called to give me plenty of time to do something about the things I’ve got stored there.”

“We can stop by on the way there. The girls’ll probably be happy to see Lanying.”

“She’ll be happy to see them, too,” James agreed, and there was something tight in his eyes that had Qrow reaching out for him, tugging him closer to his little nest.

“How’s she holding up?”

“She’s… holding. But she’s also… very  _ lonely, _ I think.”

“I can imagine.” He shifted his hand around until he found James’ heartbeat, stroking his thumb in gentle shapes over his chest, over the thumping of his heart. “And how are  _ you _ holding up?”

James caught his hand, and brought it to his lips to press a kiss to Qrow’s thumb.  _ “I’m _ holding up fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because loss of a parent takes a long time to heal, and you tend to ignore your own pain if you think you have to take care of someone else’s. I’m not saying you have to be on the verge of a breakdown over this. Just that you can tell me if you’re not fine. That’s what I’m here for- the moments that you’re not fine.”

James was quiet for a time, and finally shifted a little before admitting, a bit sheepishly, “I’m not crazy about her selling the house I grew up in. I get why she is, and I understand, but it’s still the first place that felt like a home for me. Not having it there to go back to just feels… wrong.”

Qrow nodded, and said nothing, just carried on tracing shapes over James’ chest with his thumb. After another thoughtful silence, James went on.

“It’s seems strange to me to feel this way- I had no problem moving out of the house I shared with Josef, but leaving behind the house Dad raised me in, where I haven’t lived in decades, has me reeling.”

“That makes sense,” Qrow said, and when James seemed unsure, explained, “You might not have minded leaving your house, but think of how much back and forth you had last spring over giving up your work at the lab- and I know for a fact it’s still bothering you. You didn’t mind leaving the house because that wasn’t what you associated with Josef, the lab and your work was. But a lot of your memories of Guiles are linked to your childhood home, so seeing that go is hitting you harder. Not to mention that six months is very different than five years. The hurt is still raw.”

“Oh. Hmm. That actually makes a lot of sense.”

“Why does everyone always seem  _ surprised _ when they say that?” Qrow huffed. “I have a year and a half of group therapy under me now, can people give me credit for having picked up a  _ little _ bit of insight?”

He scrunched up his face in a pout, and then squawked when James caught his chin a stole a kiss from his puckered lips.

“Asshole,” he said, pouting harder, and James chuckled and stole another kiss.

“You’re right,” he murmured. “You’re a lot less brainless than you pretend. I should give you more credit for that.”

“Damn right you should,” Qrow mumbled, letting James kiss him again and again until they were flush in Qrow’s blanket nest. There was no lust driving them: just intimacy and reassurance, trailing hands lazily over each other without a push for something more, but it was what they both needed all the same.

-/-

Weeknights at the bar were lonelier than Roman ever liked to admit. Junior rarely worked weeknights, Tukson worked earlier shifts, and the twins weren’t allowed in the bar past nine. In the past he’d had Qrow around to talk to occasionally- he didn’t drink on schoolnights, but the bar was a comforting place for him even when he wasn’t drinking.

Most of the bar’s patrons were younger these days anyway. Ever since the remodel much of the older crowd had faded and the newer clientele tended to be college students and young adults- the sort of people who preferred the headache-inducing techno music that was the bar’s soundtrack these days.

_ Was Junior’s a bar or a nightclub? _ Roman had demanded when Junior told him his plans for the remodel, and Junior had pointed out that business was drying up and would keep drying up unless they attracted a younger clientele. Roman hadn’t pointed out that a business that mostly served as the only legitimate venture for a criminal kingpin didn’t need to be booming; he suspected there was an undercurrent to Junior’s motivations that he wasn’t picking up on, and wasn’t sure he wanted to.

He honestly didn’t have much to do. The three redshirts behind the bar were more than keeping up with the flow of drinks and maintaining order.

Roman decided to do a round on the floor, just to keep an eye on things, when he spotted one of his classmates at an out of the way table. He’d spoken to her all of once, and that only because she’d dropped her pencil and it had rolled under his desk: the ‘here you go’ and ‘thanks’ hardly amounted to a real conversation.

Now she was giving off clear ‘go away’ vibes at the two guys talking to her, one sitting far too close to her personal space. His lips tightened into a thin line; he grabbed his cane from under the bar and headed over.

“Hello, dearie~” he said as soon as he’d reached the table. He ignored the guys for the moment, turning a reassuring smile on the girl. “You’re in my American Lit class, right? I wonder if you’d be willing to be a sounding board for my upcoming writing topic; I could always use a second opinion.”

For just a second the girl looked confused, and then understanding dawned and she nodded sharply. “O-of course. Can we go somewhere else to talk?”

“By all means.” He gave a small, playful bow and gestured for her to lead the way, continuing to- by all appearances- ignore the two increasingly upset men at the table as she left. When he turned to follow, they both stood.

“Hey, you can’t do that- we’re trying to talk here-”

“Come back, we weren’t done-”

The one nearest Roman stopped short at finding the end of Roman’s cane pressing against his sternum. Roman glared the other one back as well, and then plastered on his most genial smile.

“This conversation ends right now, or I throw you both out on your ass,” he said, tone not dropping from something genial and friendly. “It’s up to you. Either way, I suggest you learn to read the room a little better.”

“We were just  _ talking,” _ the one protested, and Roman’s expression dropped a few degrees icier.

“And now you are done talking. Do I make myself clear?”

They seemed for a moment like they intended to escalate, but at the end of the day they were nothing more than a couple of stupid kids- dangerous, but still just stupid kids- and so they backed down when it was clear Roman wouldn’t. The one behind, without Roman’s cane in his sternum, tugged the other’s sleeve.

“Let’s go, man. There’s other bars.”

Roman watched them go, waiting until the door was swinging behind him before turning and looking for his classmate. She’d found her way to the bar and was chatting- willingly, judging by her body language- with the girl at the till. He caught her eye- the till girl, not the classmate- and she flashed him an ‘okay’ gesture, so he turned to resume his rounds, content that the girl was in good hands and safe now.

“That was very well done,” said a voice behind him. He turned; it came from a man sitting at one of the more shadowed tables in in the corner, not far at all from where this encounter had taken place.

Roman looked the man over. It was hard to see from where he was standing, but he appeared to be about ninety percent leg, with bony shoulders and a frankly magnificent mustache. He was watching Roman with a deeply calculating look that was setting off alarm bells in his head just to see it. Roman leaned on his cane and gave the man a winning smile.

“Junior doesn’t like it when his clientele get harassed. It’s bad for business.”

“I suppose so.” Across from him, a chair scraped out from under the table in invitation. “Have a seat. I have a business proposal for you- one not related to this bar, that is.”

More alarm bells, but the man was unlocking the phone under one hand and playing his fingers over it without looking. Roman hummed a negative.

“I’ll stand, thanks.”

“Suit yourself.” He’d found what he was looking for, apparently; he pushed the phone across the table. “I understand you’re very good at finding people who don’t want to be found. Well, I’m looking for someone, and I’d like to hire you to find her.”

That alone was never something that Roman liked to hear, but he liked it even less when he- unable to stop himself- looked down at the phone.

_ Cinder, _ his mind shouted, and only twenty years of training kept the recognition from showing on his face. He turned his attention back to the man.

“Who is she to you? Why are you looking for her?”

“Now that’s not really any of your business, is it?” He pulled the phone back to him, pocketing it and folding his hands neatly in front of him. “All you need to know is that she’s been missing for over a year and a half, and I would very much like to find her again.”

“Yes, well.” Roman shouldered his cane, shifting his weight nonchalantly to the other side. “As it happens, I’m retired, so you’ll want to take your business elsewhere.”

_ “Retired?” _ The man snorted. “You and I both know this isn’t the sort of job you retire from.”

“It is when your boss says it is. I’ll be leaving you, now, unless you have something better with which to waste my time.”

He turned and moved away, relieved when the man didn’t attempt to call him back.

So. Cinder was in the city, was she? He filed that away as something to think about, something to tell Neo about later. Cinder had been her- well, ‘friend’ wasn’t the right word for what they’d been, but they’d spent a lot of time together, anyway- Cinder had been attached to them in some way and they’d both missed every single red flag about what she was going through. The way Roman saw it, he owed her something after letting her slip through the cracks like that.

If there was someone looking for her, it might be worth it to find her themselves, if only to see if they could help in some way.

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bastard spotted.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tai and Roman have their first date, among other things. Meanwhile, Qrow and James are fighting, but it's not so bad, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent two years planning this date and then when I finally got to write it it immediately went in a direction I'd planned explicitly _not_ to take it in. Oh well, such is the way when you let your characters act in a way that feels natural instead of forcing them to behave for the purpose of reaching a set goal regardless of how in-line that is with established characterization.

-/-

The time leading up to Tai’s date with Roman managed to pass by fairly uneventfully- true to prediction, James offered to just buy Qrow a new car, and when refused asked if he was sure enough times that Qrow was bitchy and irritable and James was huffy and snappish. But they weren’t good at being angry at each other for long, and by the time Tai left Wednesday evening, they were already bantering again- albeit with more barbs and less gentleness than usual.

Tai decided he’d give them another day before intervening- besides, he had his own relationship situation to worry about. For one thing, the question of whether he  _ had _ a relationship situation was still up in the air. Roman was still upset with him, judging by his scarcity on campus and the fact that he was mostly ignoring Tai’s texts, and Roman was far better at holding a grudge than either Qrow or James.

If tonight didn’t go off perfectly, and if Tai didn’t make his remorse clear enough, he could end up losing Roman as soon as he realized he wanted him.

Roman was down in the bar when Tai got there, hunched over the counter talking to Junior while he nursed a single drink. Junior spotted him first, and told Roman; Roman stood and turned to greet him and, oh, oh boy, was Tai in trouble now.

Tai had always known, in a vague sort of way, that Roman was a good-looking guy. He might have been straight, but he had eyes and a working brain, and could see that the care Roman always put into his appearance paid off tenfold.

Now he was suddenly fully aware of what that  _ meant, _ that Roman was not handsome in the vague, abstract way that James or Junior were, but in a very plainly apparent way that got under Tai’s skin in places he hadn’t even known was possible. Roman wasn’t just a good-looking guy, he was a feast for the eyes, and Tai’s eyes, it turned out, were _starving._

And judging by the way Roman was smirking at him, he knew it, too.

“I feel underdressed,” Tai said by way of greeting, looking Roman over again. His suit was black on black on black, the only splash of color the deep red tie that matched the band on his hat and the tip of his cane. Compared to the dress shirt and black jeans that was Tai’s concession to dressing up, Tai felt suddenly out of place.

“You’re the one that planned our excursion.” Roman took his arm and steered him toward the door, ignoring Junior’s parting shot to ‘have fun, have him home whenever’. “For all I know I may well be overdressed for the occasion.  _ But, _ if it gets you to look at me like that again, I don’t think I mind very much.”

“Oh. Guess I wasn’t being subtle, huh?”

“You were about as subtle as a brick.” He didn’t seem to mind- and Tai supposed he wouldn’t- and instead asked, “Where are we going, then?”

“Uh, well, I tried to get us a reservation at Chez Platypus, but they’re booked up for the rest of the month. So how does A Ritz* sound?”

“Oh, that’s a really nice place. You’re taking this seriously.”

“Of course I’m taking it seriously.” They’d reached the parking lot; Tai stopped, and they turned to face each other. “Roman, I really want tonight to go well, but also, I know I hurt you, and I want to make that up to you. I couldn’t  _ not _ take this seriously.”

“Hmm. Guess we’ll see how well that works out for you.”

-/-

For all that they were clearly still upset with each other, James and Qrow still ended up migrating into the workroom at the end of the evening, doing their work in uneasy silence on either side of the big desk that took up one corner of the room. Though they would neither of them say it, they were both waiting for that breaking point, the moment that the weight of their disagreement became too much for them.

Appropriately, it was James who reached it first.

“Look, Qrow-” He paused, waiting for Qrow to look up from his grading, and went on. “-I’m sorry. I know how you feel and I know I shouldn’t have pushed after the first time, I just…”

He trailed off, and Qrow gave him a few beats before gesturing for him to go on, pointed silence aiming right for his middle. He sighed.

“When you need something, and I can provide it for you and don’t, it just ends up feeling like I’m not doing my part, that I’m not taking good enough care of you. You do so much to take care of me and if I can’t return that… it just seems so unfair.”

Qrow let the silence draw out for two, three more seconds, but he was no more willing to stay angry than James was, not now that James had let down his part of the barrier between them, so he let his own anger break and his expression soften.

“You idiot,” he said, fondness radiating from him. “That’s so dumb. What do you mean you’re not taking good enough care of me? You take care of me just fine.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re an overachiever and nothing you do is ever good enough for you.” He reached across the desk and folded his hand around James’. “But it’s not some rando calrissian who holds me after my meetings every week, or does your share of cooking and cleaning, or spoils my girls, or treats a relationship with my daughter as being as important as your relationship with me. Last I checked that was  _ you _ I bounce lesson plans off of and helps me work out what to do about my problem kids and slips little love notes in my lunch in case I’m having a bad day by the time I get it.  _ And _ you make me laugh. How are you _not_ taking care of me?”

“I should be doing more. I’m  _ able _ to do more.”

“You  _ do _ plenty.” He gave James’ hand a squeeze. “But if you had your way you’d  _ do _ everything, and that’s not good for either of us. You offer me everything I could ever want and I love that about you but sometimes turning you down is more important than getting whatever it is in question. And sometimes I need to do things for myself, even if it’s harder than letting you do it for me.” He smiled weakly. “C’mon, Jim, I’m not so skint I can’t afford a decent vehicle for myself.”

James sighed, letting his gaze drop to their joined hands and rubbed his thumb over Qrow’s knuckle. “I’m sorry.”

“I know y’are.” He folded his other hand around their joined hands and brought James’ up to his cheek, leaning into his palm with a content noise. “We’ll be all right, though.”

“Yeah. We’ll be fine.”

-/-

“So let me see if I’ve got this,” Roman said, once they had reached their table and been left alone to peruse their menus. “Demisexual? And you never knew?”

“I’d never even heard of it before the other night, but I don’t think I would have put things together even if I had. Then Glynda laid everything out for me right beside my romantic history and it… made sense.”

“I guess she would know.”

“What?”

“Nothing, just thinking out loud. But why was she the one you went to about this? Why not come to me directly?”

Tai laughed. “Honestly? I was worried I was misreading the situation. The last thing I wanted was to be wrong and end up hurting you. I didn’t want to have talked myself into a crush like when I was in high school and have you pay the price for it.”

Roman snorted. “I hate to break it to you, champ, but you didn’t talk yourself  _ into _ a crush in high school. You  _ had _ a crush, and then you talked yourself  _ out _ of it.”

There was a pause while their server arrived, and they gave their orders before returning to the conversation at hand.

“Frankly, being able to talk yourself out of a crush has to count as a superpower. Wish I could do that. It would certainly make my life much easier.”

“Really?”

Roman waved that away. “You think you’re the only straight man I’ve ever been attracted to? And not all of them are as nice as you about it.  _ You _ just politely declined my offer.”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“You’d be surprised at the way some people would answer that question.”

Tai’s face fell. “Unfortunately I don’t think I would be.”

Roman shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve learned where to look for men who will be interested in me, or at least not violent about their lack of interest.” He rested his chin in one hand and watched Tai thoughtfully. “Though… I have to admit I never really saw  _ this _ coming.”

“You and me both, buddy.”

-/-

Dinner went well. Roman seemed less upset than he had all week, and Tai hoped he was forgiven, or at least had made his remorse clear enough that forgiveness would be allowed in time.

After dinner, they went for a walk by the river, taking in some of the sights and sounds that drew in tourists, though not participating themselves. Tai bought a bag of candied nuts from the sweet shop, and they munched on them as they walked.

It never happened, but Tai found himself wishing more than once that they could reach into the bag at the same time, so their hands could touch accidentally. He felt a little bit like a giddy teenager on his first date, and as the night drew nearer and they were making the walk back to his car, he chanced- very slowly, very hesitantly- putting an arm around Roman’s shoulder.

“Took you long enough,” Roman said, taking the hand over his shoulder in one of his own and adjusting Tai’s arm so it sat more comfortably around him. “Was starting to think you didn’t want to.”

“I did, but I didn’t want… I don’t know where the lines are.”

“Sorry, when have I  _ ever _ given off the impression that I  _ don’t _ want you touching me?”

“All right, all right, fair enough.” He grinned as an idea struck, and leaned in to nuzzle Roman’s hair, just under the brim of his hat, and murmured in his ear, “So if I wanted to kiss you again-”

He didn’t even get to finish his sentence: Roman twisted around in the space between them and crushed their mouths together, arms coming up around Tai’s neck, hands tracing the shape of broad shoulders before he tightened his hold and pulled himself as close as possible.

Tai, meanwhile, had his hands full, quite literally, of Roman. There was no table between them this time to prevent him from finding the best place to just  _ hold  _ and he found it in the soft edges of his waist, smoothed down by his suit but if Tai didn’t mind rumpling him- just a  _ bit- _

_ “God,” _ Roman breathed. He pulled back just a touch, just enough, and licked his lips. “You uh. You wanna come back to mine?”

Tai’s brain ground to a screeching halt.  _ Yes, yes, god yes, absolutely, _ a part of him sang, while another chided him with  _ You can’t just jump into bed on the first date _ and another protested that it was hardly the first time they’d gone out so that argument didn’t count and another whispered a very quiet, sinister reminder of how  _ long _ it had been since he’d gotten off to more than just his hand and it was that, as much as that he couldn’t think of a good enough  _ reason _ to say no that he kissed Roman again and whispered  _ yes _ into his lips.

-/-

They made it back to Roman’s apartment and over to the couch before Tai’s thoughts caught up to him. Roman crawled into his lap and started undoing the buttons on Tai’s shirt and Tai’s brain froze in place.

“Roman-” He caught Roman’s hands at the wrists, stilling them gently. “Roman, hold on-”

He did, rocking back so there was a little space between them, even though he was still straddling Tai’s lap.

“We stopping?”

“No- no, nothing like that, I just-” He dropped Roman’s hands and, not quite sure what to do with his own now, let them fall down to Roman’s thighs, rubbing slowly up and down them while he said to Roman’s sternum, “It’s been… a  _ while _ for me. Like… we’re talking a desert level dry spell here.”

Roman tilted his head to consider this. “How long are we talking? Specifically?”

“Well. You met me the morning after my wife’s funeral, and it’s taken me this long to realize I’m demisexual.  _ You _ do the math.”

“Jesus  _ christ,” _ Roman said. “A  _ decade? _ We’re talking a  _ decade?” _

“Um… not exactly…” Tai rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “There’s been a couple times… Raven came by to see me once or twice… we did some very ill-advised things…” He shrugged. “But it’s still been years. After the way she treated Yang that last time…”

“Yeah, I get that.” He let his hands trail down until they met Tai’s, covering them and holding them in place. “So  _ are _ we stopping, or…?”

“No, I just wanted to warn you. And- and also… I’ve never…”

He trailed off, but this Roman was able to guess. “Never been with a man before?”

“Yeah. That.”

“Well.” Roman leaned in again, sliding himself flush against Tai’s form, hands slipping up to finish the job he’d started on his buttons. “Good thing I have enough practice for the both of us, then.”

-/-

Tai woke to a grey dawn seeping in through slightly-ajar blinds, surrounded by a smell he couldn’t quite identify- some kind of cologne? Body spray? He shook his head, trying to orient himself, and remembered where he was and why.

He rolled over. Oh, that was what he smelled. Roman’s shampoo, pressed permanently into his bedding. It smelled a little bit like a mix of cherry blossoms and charcoal, and probably a few other things Tai couldn’t identify, but it wasn’t a bad combination.

Roman didn’t stir when Tai did, so Tai took the opportunity to study him- he hadn’t exactly had the chance to last night, being a little more occupied with figuring out which were the best places to touch. He chanced one of those touched now, laying a hand over the softness of Roman’s hip, and when Roman still didn’t stir, traced his hand up, up over the roundness of his middle, and then stopping before going any further. The scars on his chest were well-healed, but still apparent in the dim light, and Tai wasn’t sure if his touch would be as welcome there as elsewhere.

“If you’re going to stop, at least don’t be so obvious about it,” Roman mumbled into his pillow, and Tai startled. He pulled his hand back.

“I didn’t realize you were awake.”

“Hmm.” Roman stirred now, rolling onto his front and stretching out enough to pop multiple joints before sitting up with a yawn. “The best thing about being able to feign sleep believably is that when the man who fucked you silly the night before starts touching you reverently because he thinks you’re asleep, you don’t have to let him know you’re aware of it until you’re good and ready.”

“Oh.” Tai wasn’t sure what to say to that, but it didn’t matter, because in the silence he realized his phone was buzzing. He looked around, startled to find it sitting on the nightstand. “Wait, when did-”

“Picked your pocket when I took your pants off,” Roman said, yawning again and laying back down. He rolled over and pulled the covers up over his head. “Force of habit.”

“Thanks.” Tai grabbed it and checked- Qrow. He answered. “This is Tai.”

“Where are you, man?”

“What?”

“You’re supposed to do the school run this morning. Did you forget? You didn’t come home last night.”

“Oh. I uh.” He glanced at Roman, and shook his head. “I stayed with my date last night. I forgot about the school run. Can you…?”

Qrow let out a low whistle. “Yeah, no problem. But uh. Next time gimme a call or something, yeah?”

“Yeah… sorry, it wasn’t… I didn’t exactly plan this.”

“Course. I’ll let you go, I gotta get this lot out the door now.”

Once Tai had hung up and set his phone aside, he found himself with a lapful of Roman again. He made a startled noise.

“Hello.”

“Didn’t tell your family about me, did you? M’I your dirty little secret?”

Normally Tai could read Roman’s tone, but this one was giving him pause. There was a flirty, salacious edge to it: it was seduction, pure and simple. But there was an undertone there that he wasn’t quite sure how to interpret, one that suggested there was more to the question than he was hearing.

He decided to make a play for honesty instead of trying to figure it out. “I wasn’t sure if there was anything to tell them. I’m playing all of this by ear and if last night ended up not going well, I didn’t want to… I don’t know.” Get their hopes up? He doubted that would happen; his kids might like Roman in their own way, and he and Qrow might be close, but he didn’t think any of them would be exactly ecstatic to find out Tai had fallen for him.

Too, he hadn’t been entirely sure what  _ Roman _ would be comfortable with having shared. True, he’d always been pretty open about his dating life, but the recent revelations had made it clear that Roman ran deep, and Tai had no idea how much that openness was obfuscating.

“This is all just really new ground for me,” he finally admitted. “I don’t want to go telling my family anything until I’ve figure out what I’m telling them.”

“Interesting.” Roman pushed him back at the shoulders and grinned down at him. “Question.”

“Yes?”

“What time is your first class this morning?”

“Eight. You know this.”

“Well, it is… about seven now, which means you can either hurry to dress and then turn up to teach in the clothes you  _ very clearly _ wore last night…” He leaned down, and kissed a line down Tai’s jaw. “Oooor… we can play hooky and pick up where we left off last night.”

“Trying to keep me here?” Tai teased, reaching up and tangling his fingers in Roman’s hair.

“Just trying to get as much time as I can before this all ends,” Roman replied.

This time when Tai pushed Roman back he was more concerned than embarrassed. He searched Roman’s face and finally said, “Roman, do you… what do you think this… is this just a fling for you? Or do… you think it’s just a fling for me…?”

Roman shrugged. “It’s not like you know any better than I do. I’m just covering my bases.”

Tai sat up, pushing Roman back to sit at arm’s length from him. “Listen. I don’t know what this is because I don’t know what you want or how what you want will mesh with what I want. I don’t know what this is because we haven’t really  _ talked _ about what it is. But I do know what I _ want _ , and what  _ I _ want isn’t a  _ fling. _ And based on what you’ve said, I don’t think that’s what you want either.” He sighed, and reached for his phone. “I think I will call out for my first class. It sounds like you and I really need to talk before things go any further.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Not to be confused with The Ritz


	13. Backstory Intermission 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Junior and Mallory try to address this new situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: This chapter contains unintentional misgendering of a trans character.

-/-

By the time Mallory got to the bar, Junior had managed to get Roman to relax a little; she (he? Junior really needed to find some way of opening that door, he didn’t want to go accidentally misgendering the kid, but he also didn’t want to put them on the spot), but not enough to feel comfortable without the entire room between them.

“This is my wife, Mallory,” he said when she joined them. “I’m going to go out and get us all some food. It’ll be easier to figure all this out over a full stomach. Any requests?”

Roman shrugged. “Honestly I’ll eat anything, I’ve been living off of granola bars and dollar menu burgers.”

“Right..” Junior left, shaking his head and hoping Mallory could have better luck getting the kid to calm down. That kind of tension wasn’t good for the kid  _ or _ the baby.

(Assuming Roman even intended to keep said baby. True, the pregnancy would be past the  _ legal _ point for termination, but Junior would rather arrange something not legal but otherwise safe than see a fifteen year old forced into parenthood over someone else’s morals.)

Once Junior was gone, Mallory chanced sitting on the sofa, at the other end to give Roman enough space all the same. Roman tensed a little, but seemed otherwise to accept this space, so Mallory gave her a big smile.

“Junior told me a little bit of what happened to you,” she said. “I can guess the rest. What’s your parents’ names, hon? I want to… talk… to them.”

“It’s not important.”

“Oh it’s very important.” When this got no response, Mallory reached over and laid a hand over Roman’s. “Sweetie, it’s going to be okay. Junior and me, we’re not going to throw you back out.”

She pulled her hand away, curling her knees up and folding her hands into her lap, at least as best as she could manage. “You don’t have to do anything for me.”

“Ah, well, that’s where you’re wrong, actually. As soon as Junior found you, there was no way we  _ couldn’t _ do anything for you.”

“Don’t need help.”

“Incorrect. I think what you mean is that you don’t  _ want _ help. But you’re fifteen, homeless, and pregnant. You do in fact need help.”

Mallory wasn’t expecting this to change anything, and unsurprisingly, Roman just folded her arms and curled deeper into her corner of the sofa.

-/-

Junior came back with food- a pizza, along with a can of pears and a large bottle of gatorade, since he figured the kid could probably use some fruit and also likely hadn’t been getting enough electrolytes lately, either. Roman ate themself sick, and then once their stomach had settled, ate more slowly while the three of them talked.

Eventually, they persuaded the kid to come home with them. Mallory deposited them in the guest bathroom and left some clothes on the bed, and then slipped out to talk to Junior privately.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know when we decided we were going to start trying for kids, a pregnant homeless teenager wasn’t exactly what we had in mind…”

But Mallory just silenced him with a finger to his lips. “Hush,” she murmured, and kissed him. “There is no reality in which the man I married and the man who would turn that child away are the same man. We’ve still got a few weeks before I’m completely off birth control. We’ll get Roman settled and  _ then _ start trying to start our family.”

-/-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mallory at Roman's parents: Turn on your location I just wanna talk
> 
> Y'all are enjoying these snapshot backstory intermissions, right? It was the only way I could think of to actually give us anything about Roman's backstory because, as you can see, he's so tightlipped I can't even get his pov to come out while it's actually onscreen.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find bts on this fic, and lots of other fic too, on tumblr @grifalinas. Hit me up! I'll be the guy making at least one post a week about how much I love James Ironwood with all of my heart and soul.


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